REESE   LIBRARY 


;RS 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


Deceived        MAR  13    1893 
Accessions  No.  &Q  if  7  3  . 


189    . \v 


THOUGHTS 


ON  THE 


FUTURE    CIVIL    POLICY 


OF 


AMERICA. 


JOHN  WILLIAM  DRAPER,  M.D.,  LL.D., 

PROFESSOR   OF   CHEMISTRY   AND   PHYSIOLOGY   IN  THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   NEW 

YORK; 
AUTHOR  OF  A  "TREATISE  ON  HUMAN  PHYSIOLOGY" 

AND  OF  A 
"  HISTORY   OF    THE    INTELLECTUAL   DEVELOPMENT  OF   EUROPE." 


NEW    YORK: 


HARPER    &    BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN      SQUARE. 

1875. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  sixty-five,  by 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern  District  of 
New  York. 


PREFACE. 


IN  a  work  on  "  The  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe," 
published  in  1863, 1  showed  that  the  historical  progress  of 
the  nations  of  that  continent  illustrates  the  fact  that  social 
advancement  is  as  completely  under  the  control  of  natural 
law  as  is  the  bodily  growth  of  an  individual. 

It  was  my  intention  in  that  work  to  limit  the  application 
of  the  principles  employed  to  the  case  of  Europe,  but  it  is 
plain  that  they  may  equally  be  made  to  apply  to  the  case 
of  America. 

Last  winter,  at  the  request  of  the  Nsw  York  Historical  So 
ciety,  I  gave  a  course  of  four  lectures  for  the  purpose  of 
showing  that  application. 

The  favor  with  which  my  work  on  Europe  had  been  re: 
ceived,  a  great  many  editions,  reprints  and  translations,  of  it 
having  been  called  for  in  a  short  time,  was  again  exhibited 
in  the  case  of  these  lectures,  and  I  became  satisfied  that  it 
was  desirable  to  give  them  a  more  permanent  form. 

Selecting,  therefore,  some  of  the  more  prominent  princi 
ples  thus  presented,  I  design  to  show  in  this  work  their  bear 
ing  on  certain  questions  of  great  political  interest  in  Amer 
ica.  The  lectures  delivered  before  the  Historical  Society 
are  here,  of  course,  very  much  extended,  the  amount  of  mat 
ter  having  been  almost  quadrupled,  and  many  new  topics  in 
troduced. 


}v  PREFACE. 

4 

Perhaps  at  the  present  moment,  when  the  Eepublic  has 
reached  one  of  those  epochs  at  which  it  must  experience  im 
portant  transformations,  it  may  not  be  inopportune  to  direct 
attention  to  the  effects  of  physical  agents  and  laws  on  the 
advancement  of  nations.  We  are  too  prone  to  depreciate 
their  influence. 

The  aim  of  all  science  is  prevision — the  foretelling  of  the 
future.  Historical  foresight  is  not  denied  to  man.  As  the 
Astronomer,  from  recorded  facts,  deduces  the  laws  under 
which  the  celestial  bodies  move,  and  then  applies  them  with 
unerring  certainty  to  the  prophesying  of  future  events,  so 
may  the  Historian,  who  relies  on  the  immutability  of  Nature, 
predict  the  inevitable  course  through  which  a  nation  must 
pass. 

To  appreciate  the  working  of  some  of  those  natural  laws 
in  the  case  of  America,  to  divine  the  future  tendencies  of  the 
Republic,  to  extract  from  the  observations  we  make  rules  for 
national  conduct — these  are  the  objects  to  which  the  follow 
ing  pages  are  devoted. 

NEW  YORK,  1865. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION. 

A  VERY  large  edition  of  this  work  has  been  exhausted  in 
the  course  of  a  few  weeks,  and  a  second  one  is  called  for. 
For  this  mark  of  public  approval  I  return  my  sincere  thanks. 

In  this  edition  I  have  not  thought  it  desirable  or  necessary 
to  make  any  changes,  except  a  few  typographical  corrections. 

NEW  YORK,  October,  1865. 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER  I. 

ON   THE   INFLUENCE    OF    CLIMATE. 

Commencing  with  the  statement  that  Nations,  like  all  the  forms 
of  life,  are  transitory,  the  physical  influences  that  originate 
and  destroy  those  forms  are  considered.  And  since  plants 
and  animals  are  found  to  change  helplessly  under  such  in 
fluences,  they  are  therefore  illustrations  of  the  control  of 
UNIVERSAL  LAW.  A  special  inquiry  is  made  as  to  the  effects 
of  Climate  on  the  skin  and  skull  of  man,  and  on  his  phys 
ical  and  intellectual  powers. 

Then  folloics  a  brief  topographical  description  of  the  United 
States  ;  the  Climate  effects,  North  and  South,  are  considered, 
and  the  conditions  necessary  to  insure  stability  in  the  polit 
ical  institutions  of  the  country  are  pointed  out.  The  general 
inferences  are  illustrated  by  historical  cases,  as  those  of  Egypt 
and  Asia. 

The  main  conclusion  brought  into  relief  is,  that  PERSONAL  LO 
COMOTION  can  check  the  effects  of  Climate.  The  importance 
of  that  locomotion  in  the  development  of  the  American  Re 
public,  and  the  necessity  of  legislation  to  encourage  and  se 
cure  it,  are  insisted  upon  .  .  Viv  .'s»  *=•  •  •  Page  9 

CHAPTER  II. 

ON   THE   EFFECTS    OF   EMIGRATION. 

Admitting  the  correctness  of  the  division  of  Society  into  three 
grades,  as  established  by  Machiavelli,  the  effect  arising  from 
the  emigration  of  each  of  those  grades  is  considered,  and  il 
lustrations  from  the  history  of  Spain  and  England  examined. 
The  extinction  of  the  Romans  and  diffusion  of  the  Arabs  are 
traced  to  their  physiological  causes. 


vi  CONTENTS. 

The  political  consequences  of  immigration  are  illustrated  by  the 
establishment  of  the  Cotton  manufacture  in  Europe  and  Negro 
slavery  in  America. 

The  ante -historic  settlement  of  Europe  by  immigrants  from 
Asia,  as  determined  by  the  modern  methods  of  linguistic  re 
search,  is  next  considered,  the  laics  of  Population  explained 
in  connection  therewith,  and  the  necessity  of  material  to  mor 
al  changes  suggested. 

MachiavelWs  principles  and  the  foregoing  results  are  then  ap 
plied  to  the  United  States — 1st.  European  immigration  in  the 
North;  Id.  Internal  emigration  to  the  West ;  3d.  Prospective 
emigration  to  the  South  ;  4th.  Asiatic  immigration  to  the  Pa 
cific  States.  The  evils  contingent  on  the  spread  of  Polygamy, 
and  the  general  effects  of  all  these  movements  on  the  wealth 
and  grandeur  of  the  Republic,  are  shown  ....  Page  93 

CHAPTER  III. 

ON  THE   POLITICAL   FORCE   OF   IDEAS. 

Ideas  act  on  masses  of  men  in  a  double  manner,  sometimes  ex 
erting  an  impelling,  sometimes  a  resisting  agency. 

The  Impelling  power  of  Ideas  is  illustrated  in  the  case  of  Mo 
hammedanism,  of  which  the  political  development  as  attained 
in  Spain,  and  the  Intellectual,  as  manifested  in  the  philoso 
phy  of  Averroes,  are  described. 

The  Resisting  power  of  Ideas  is  illustrated  in  the  case  of  the 
Jews.  A  brief  sketch  is  given  of  their  history,  their  sacred 
writings,  and  the  modifications  impressed  upon  them  by  the 
Persians,  Greeks,  and  Arabs.  It  is  their  Messianic  idea  that 
resists  the  influences  of  Conquest  and  Time,  and  preserves  them 
a  separate  people  among  all  nations. 

Man  may  comprehend  Nature  and  subjugate  physical  forces. 
Under  this  Idea  modern  civilization  is  advancing.  It  is  il 
lustrated  by  a  sketch  of  certain  scientific  discoveries  and  use 
ful  inventions. 

The  ecclesiastical  causes  of  the  European  opposition  to  Science 
are  explained,  and  the  duty  of  America  to  develop  and  protect 
free  thought  is  enforced 178 


CONTENTS.  vii 

CHAPTER  IV. 

ON   THE   NATUKAL   COUKSE    OF    NATIONAL   DEVELOPMENT. 

The  Organization,  Development,  and  Government  of  the  Nat 
ural  World  are  shown  to  involve  a  continual  tendency  to  con 
centration  ofpoicer,  and  the  conferring  of  a  dominant  control 
on  Intelligence. 

Tfiis  principle  applies  in  the  case  of  human  societies  during  their 
political  development.  A  comparison  is  instituted  between  the 
European  method  of  government  through  the  Morals,  and  the 
American  of  government  through  the  Intellect.  It  is  illus 
trated  by  the  history  of  England,  taken  as  a  type  of  the  for 
mer,  and  by  the  history  of  the  United  States,  taken  as  a  type 
of  the  latter. 

It  follows,  from  the  Intellectual  method  adopted,  that  America 
must  be  the  scene  of  a  future  conflict  of  Ideas.  Their  ac 
tion,  reaction,  and  modifications  are  alluded  to,  and  the  scien 
tific  tendency  to  unity  of  opinion  pointed  out. 

And,  finally,  the  analogies  between  the  Italian  ecclesiastical  sys 
tem  and  the  American  civil  system  are  referred  to. 

7.7ie  general  object  of  the  chapter  is  to  show  that  in  all  durable 
human  associations  there  is  a  natural,  an  inevitable  tendency 
to  the  concentration  of power  ;  and  that,  so  far  from  this  ber 
ing  in  antagonism  to  democratical  institutions,  it  is  their  le 
gitimate  and  unavoidable  result  .......  Page  23 8 / 


THOUGHTS 


ON 


AMERICAN  CIVIL  POLICY. 


INTRODUCTION. 

AT  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  which  has  ended  in 
the  military  vindication  of  the  Great  Kepublic,  the 
minds  of  thoughtful  men  naturally  turn  to  the  Fu 
ture.  An  Imperial  power  has  come  into  existence 
before  our  eyes.  It  rivals — perhaps,  indeed,  it  al 
ready  excels — in  warlike  resources  the  ancient  mon 
archies  of  Europe.  There  is  before  it  a  career  of  un 
paralleled  grandeur,  a  splendid  history,  to  be  wrought 
out  on  a  greater  scale  than  that  of  Rome. 

What  topics,  then,  are  more  worthy  of  public  at 
tention  than  those  with  which  American  statesman 
ship  will  now  necessarily  be  called  upon  to  deal? 
With  what  else  can  the  American  reader,  who  has 
faith  in  the  Destiny  of  his  Nation,  more  profitably 
occupy  himself?  There  are  political  problems  of  sur 
passing  importance,  for  which  solutions  must  now  be 
found. 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

Having  been  occupied  for  many  years  in  the  study 
of  the  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe,  I  have 
had  occasion  to  observe  the  manner  in  which  many 
of  these  problems  have  been  solved  on  that  continent. 
There  are  principles  specially  applicable  to  each  na 
tion,  which  guide  it  in  its  determinations,  and  settle 
the  course  of  its  life. 

Some  of  these  principles  I  propose  now  to  point 
out,  selecting  from  many  topics  the  four  following : 

INFLUENCE  OF  CLIMATE, 

EFFECTS  OF  EMIGRATION, 

POLITICAL  FORCE  OF  IDEAS, 

NATURAL  COURSE  OF  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT, 
and  making  these  serve  as  a  framework  for  the  con 
venient  presentation  of  those  principles. 


ft     !"••  u^     '«t 

[(  UNIVERSITY 

Vv  oc 

CHAPTER  I. 

ON   THE   INFLUENCE   OF   CLIMATE. 

Commencing  with  the  statement  that  Nations,  like  all  the  forms 
of  life,  are  transitory,  the  physical  influences  that  originate 
and  destroy  those  forms  are  considered.  And  since  plants 
and  animals  are  found  to  change  helplessly  tinder  such  in 
fluences,  they  are  therefore  illustrations  of  the  control  of 
UNIVERSAL  LAW.  A  special  inquiry  is  made  as  to  the  effects 
of  Climate  on  the  skin  and  skull  of  man,  and  on  his  phys 
ical  and  intellectual  powers. 

Then  follows  a  brief  topographical  description  of  the  United 
States  y  the  Climate  effects,  North  and  South,  are  considered, 
and  the  conditions  necessary  to  insure  stability  in  the  polit 
ical  institutions  of  the  country  are  pointed  out.  The  general 
inferences  are  illustrated  by  historical  cases,  as  those  of  Egypt 
and  Asia. 

The  main  conclusion  brought  into  relief  is,  that  PERSONAL  LO 
COMOTION  can  check  the  effects  of  Climate.  The  importance 
of  that  locomotion  in  the  development  of  the  American  Re 
public,  and  the  necessity  of  legislation  to  encourage  and  se 
cure  it,  are  insisted  upon. 

NATIONS,  like  individual  men,  are  born  and  die— 
an  unpalatable  truth,  for  each  tries  to  hide  from  it 
self  the  contemplation  of  its  final  day.  Each  also 
amuses  itself- with  the  delusion  that,  whatever  may 
be  the  hapless  lot  of  others,  there  is  an  immortal  fu 
ture  in  store  for  it.  But  what  does  the  inexorable 
hand  of  History  write  \  Rome,  Macedon,  Persia,  As 
syria,  Egypt,  all  are  gone. 


12  TRANSITORY  CHARACTER  OF  NATIONS. 

The  waves  of  the  ocean  spring  up,  we  know  not 
where  or  why.  They  come  careering  past  us,  the  very 
emblems  of  resistless  power.  They  subside  and  are 
lost  among  other  succeeding  waves.  In  like  manner, 
on  the  vast  sea  of  human  life,  Empires  mysteriously 
emerge.  They  raise  their  ephemeral  forms  conspicu 
ously  high,  overwhelming  whatever  stands  in  the 
way  of  their  march.  They  also  subside  and  are  lost, 
but  the  unfathomed  abyss  of  humanity  still  remains. 

To  the  infinite  expanse  of  the  ocean  belongs  end 
less  duration.  Its  waves  are  only  temporary.  The 
forces  that  have  impelled  them  into  existence  are 
soon  expended;  an  inevitable  disappearance  awaits 
them.  The  material  of  which  they  are  composed 
may  be  eternal,  but  they  themselves  are  only  vanish 
ing  forms. 

Vanishing  forms  !  Such,  too,  are  Nations  emerging 
from  the  mass  of  humanity. 

Then  it  might  seem  to  be  of  trifling  moment  to 
concern  ourselves  with  the  study  of  any  one  of  them. 
And  so  indeed  it  is,  if  we  rise  to  the  most  elevated 
point  of  view  that  history  can  occupy.  No  isolated 
fact  is  of  any  intrinsic  value  in  itself.  It  is  its  con 
nection  with  other  facts  that  gives  it  all  its  worth. 
No  sound,  whatever  its  quality  may  be,  can  ever  of 
itself  yield  music;  that  arises  from  the  well-ordered 
sequence  of  sounds.  We  only  become  conscious  of 
historical  harmony  through  a  presentment  of  success- 


ANALOGY  BETWEEN  INDIVIDUALS  AND  NATIONS.        13 

ive  nations,  varying  in  their  form,  their  strength,  their 
duration. 

With  what  a  solemn  emphasis  does  the  Past  im 
press  upon  us  its  monition  that  national  life  is  thus, 
in  the  necessity  of  circumstances,  transitory !  How 
vain  it  is  to  close  our  eyes  to  the  portentous  lesson, 
to  refuse  to  read  what  is  written  in  the  Book  of  Des 
tiny  !  How  vain  to  try  to  persuade  ourselves  that, 
though  all  other  things  in  the  world  are  disappear 
ing,  we  are  to  be  immortal !  Permanence  may  belong 
to  humanity,  but  not  to  those  forms  into  which,  here 
and  there  at  intervals,  humanity  has  been  forced.  A 
succession  of  Nations  is  the  consequence  of  the  life 
of  the  race,  being  manifestations  of  the  varying  ad 
tivity  of  groups  of  men.  Life  is  the  active,  existence 
the  passive  state.  Life  is  evanescent,  existence  is  en 
during. 

Such  groups  of  men,  thus  with  an  inevitable  fate 
before  them,  may  well  desire,  as  does  the  individual 
man,  to  postpone  as  long  as  possible  their  end.  They 
may  legitimately  seek  to  enjoy  their  existence  while 
it  lasts — nay,  more,  to  make  it  memorable. 

The  analogy  between  the  life  of  an  Individual  and 
of  a  Nation  arises  from  a  similarity  in  their  constitu 
tion.  In  the  individual  there  must  be  unceasing 
changes  in  the  component  parts.  The  appearance  of 
permanence  is  altogether  an  illusion.  Physicians 
sometimes  say  that  the  body  changes  completely  in 


14.  CHANGES  IN  INDIVIDUALS. 

seven  years.  In  truth,  it  changes  far  more  quickly 
than  that.  The  particles  of  which  it  is  composed  are 
continually  becoming  effete.  They  must  be  removed, 
and  new  ones  introduced  in  their  stead.  Such  re 
placements  are  going  on  from  the  moment  of  birth  to 
that  of  death ;  they  occur  by  night  as  well  as  by  day; 
during  sleep  as  well  as  when  we  are  awake.  This 
death  of  the  constituent  particles  of  a  living  being  is 
called  interstitial  death.  It  is  the  very  condition  of 
life.  It  occurs  in  every  part  indifferently — in  the 
soft  textures,  as  in  the  muscles  or  nerves;  in  the  hard 
est,  as  bone. 

Energy  of  life  depends  altogether  on  the  rapidity 
of  these  transmutations.  No  motion  can  be  accom 
plished  without  the  wasting  away  of  siibstance.  The 
foot  can  not  take  a  step,  the  finger  can  not  be  lifted, 
the  brain  can  not  execute  any  intellectual  act,  with 
out  the  death  of  a  portion  of  its  material.  As  such 
actions  are  more  vigorous,  the  losses  are  greater.  If, 
then,  the  body  is  to  be  maintained  in  an  unimpaired 
condition,  operations  of  renovation  must  needs  be  re 
sorted  to.  On  the  removal  of  a  particle  that  is  dead, 
a  new  one  must  be  ready  to  take  its  place.  With 
rapidity  and  precision  the  process  of  transmutation 
goes  on,  and  in  a  very  short  time  a  completely  reno 
vated  structure,  identical  in  form,  but  changed  as  to 
its  constituents,  is  produced. 

It  is  surprising  on  what  an  enormous  scale  these 


CHANGES  IN  NATIONS.  15 

transmutations  are  carried  forward.  An  adult  man, 
weighing  not  more  than  140  pounds,  requires  to  be 
supplied  with  nearly  a  ton  and  a  half  of  material  in 
the  form  of  food,  water,  and  air,  in  the  course  of  every 
year,  the  larger  portion  of  it  being  consumed  in  ac 
complishing  these  replacements.  In  the  same  period, 
the  same  weight,  that  is,  a  ton  and  a  half  of  material, 
is  dismissed  from  his  system  as  dead  or  effete.  The 
aspect  of  identity  he  presents  is  therefore  altogether 
illusory.  Particles  are  perpetually  abandoning  him, 
and  new  particles  are  being  perpetually  introduced. 
In  a  waterfall  which  retains  its  appearance  for  many 
years  unchanged,  the  supply  from  above  continually 
flows  in,  and  the  precipitated  portions  below  glide 
finally  and  forever  away.  The  waste  is  compensated 
by  the  supply.  In  no  other  manner  can  the  transi 
tory  matter  exhibit  a  permanent  form.  The  waterfall 
is  only  a  form  which  the  flux  of  liquid  assumes. 

So  in  that  collection  of  substance  constituting  man, 
or  any  animal,  whatever  may  be  its  position,  high  or 
low,  in  the  realm  of  life,  there  is  a  perpetual  intro 
duction  of  new  material  and  a  perpetual  departure 
of  the  old. 

And  so,  too,  with  Nations ;  they  undergo  unceasing 
change.  The  death  of  an  individual  in  them  corre 
sponds  to  the  death  of  a  particle  in  the  Individual. 
In  the  space  of  thirty  or  forty  years — the  period  of  a 
generation,  as  it  is  often  called — a  complete  replace- 


16  PROGRESS  OF  NATIONS. 

ment  lias  occurred.  The  men  who  were  active  have 
all  been  removed;  succeeding  men  have  occupied  their 
places.  If  there  has  been  a  season  of  violent  national 
exertion,  such  as  of  war,  the  substitution  has  gone  on 
with  greater  rapidity.  And  yet,  notwithstanding  all 
this  change,  the  nation  may  still  exist  with  all  its  es 
sential  lineaments  unimpaired.  Like  the  man  or  the 
waterfall,  it  is  only  a  transitory  form. 

Nor  does  the  analogy  between  an  Individual  and 
a  Nation  end  here.  A  similar,  perhaps  a  more  sur 
prising  parallelism  is  perceived  when  their  modes  of 
growth  are  considered,  for  not  alone  in  the  incidents 
of  birth  and  death  are  they  alike.  As  the  former 
pursues  his  way  through  the  successive  stages  of  in 
fancy,  childhood,  youth,  maturity,  old  age,  so,  as  his 
tory  teaches,  does  the  latter  too.  The  Individual 
helplessly  and  in  a  predestined  manner  runs  through 
these  stages,  being  unable  to  modify  their  succession, 
or  to  accelerate  or  retard  their  occurrence.  The  Na- 
tion,  also,  in  a  like  helpless  and  predetermined  w^ay, 
moves  through  the  same  inevitable  career.  An  un 
avoidable  destiny  rules  over  the  progress  of  both. 

That  transitory  permanence,  if  such  a  contradictory 
expression  may  be  used,  which  is  equally  seen  in  the 
Nation,  the  Individual,  the  Waterfall,  depends  on  the 
invariability  of  external  conditions.  If  they  change, 
it  also  changes,  and  a  new  form  is  the  result.  In  the 
waterfall,  if  the  jutting  ledge  over  which  the  waters 


RELATIONS  OF  MATTER  AND  FORQE.  17 

rush  should  break  suddenly  away,  or  if  some  new 
obstacle  interfere,  the  figure  of  the  flowing  sheet  of 
liquid  will  be  remodeled. 

I  repeat  with  emphasis  the  significant  remark,  that 
if  external  circumstances  change,  the  transitory  form 
will  change  with  them ;  for  it  leads  us  by  a  ready  step 
to  the  subject  to  which  many  of  these  pages  are  now 
to  be  devoted — the  Influence  of  Climate  on  Man.  To 
this  I.  therefore  hasten,  premising,  however,  some  pre 
liminary  thoughts  and  facts  needful  for  its  clear  ap 
preciation.  . 

A  rain-drop  descends  from  the  clouds :  that  simple 
•phenomenon,  like  a  thousand  others  we  might  consid 
er,  teaches  us  that  there  are  two  existences  with  which 
all  exact  science  has  to  deal.  They  are  Matter  and 
Force.  The  substance  of  which  the  rain-drop  consists 
might,  if  we  chose,  occupy  our  attention.  We  might 
dwell  upon  the  nature,  the  properties,  the  constitution 
of  water.  And  then,  again,  we  might  consider  what 
is  that  power  through  the  influence  of  which  the  drop 
has  come  down  from  the  clouds,  descending  to  the 
earth.  Our  books  of  Natural  Philosophy  teach  us  to 
call  it  gravitation :  they  speak  of  it  as  a  Force.  We 
see,  therefore,  the  truth  of  the  remark,  that  there  are 
two  things  before  us,  Matter  and  Force. 

Whence  came  that  matter,  that  drop  of  water? 
Chemistiy  tells  us  that  it  was  vaporized  by  the 
warmth  of  the  sun  from  the  ocean,  perhaps  many 


^g  VICISSITUDES  OF  MATTER. 

thousands  of  miles  away.  As  an  invisible  steam  it 
ascended  through  the  air.  Borne  along  by  drifting 
winds,  it  came  at  length  to  a  space  where  the  atmos 
phere  happened  to  be  cooler,  and,  here  condensing, 
lost  the  invisible  and  took  on  the  visible  form.  Now 
it  had  become  a  portion  of  a  cloud,  ready  to  reflect 
the  glories  of  the  departing  day.  As  a  rain-drop  it 
then  fell  to  the  ground,  soaking  through  the  earthy 
strata,  to  issue  forth  again  in  a  gushing  spring  or 
fountain.  In  company  with  many  others  like  itself, 
constituting  a  flowing  rill  that  emptied  into  larger 
streams,  it  found  through  some  river  a  return  to  the 
sea  from  which  it  came.  After  its  many  mutations, 
after  all  the  vicissitudes  it  had  undergone,  an  inevita 
ble  destiny  awaited  it — restoration  to  its  original 
source. 

So  with  the  power  that  gently  evaporated  it  from 
the  sea,  the  power  that  in  the  winds  drifted  it  from 
climate  to  climate,  the  power  that  made  it  fall  to  the 
ground,  that  carried  it  down  the  gently  flowing  cur 
rent  back  to  its  native  place,  there  was  no  deteriora 
tion,  no  decay.  It  might  have  assumed  one  form  after 
another — motion,  heat,  and  the  like — but  in  its  intrin 
sic  nature  it  was  altogether  indestructible.  It  is  the 
glory  of  modern  science  to  have  proved  that  Matter 
and  Force  are  both  imperishable. 

For  matter,  see  from  the  illustration  here  presented 
how,  though  it  may  pass  from  form  to  form,  in  what 


VICISSITUDES  OF  FORCE.  19 

a  returning  circle  it  runs.  For  force  it  is  the  same. 
With  predestined  certainty  both  conie  back  to  their 
starting-point. 

In  the  month  of  March  the  Sun  crosses  the  Equa 
tor,  dispensing  his  rays  more  abundantly  over  our 
northern  hemisphere.  Following  in  his  train,  a  wave 
of  verdure  advances  toward  the  pole.  Trees,  awaking 
from  winter,  assume  their  leafy  ornaments.  The  veg 
etable  world  enters  on  a  new  period  of  growth.  As 
autumn  comes  on,  this  orderly  advance  of  light  and 
life  is  followed  by  an  orderly  retreat,  and  in  its  turn 
the  other  hemisphere,  the  southern,  presents  the  same 
beautiful  appearance. 

Whence  came  all  these  green  leaves  and  tinted 
flowers,  these  seeds  that  are  to  furnish  food  for  man  ? 
Not  from  the  ground,  as  some  persons  think.  The 
Omnipotent  Sun,  that  central  governor  of  our  planet 
ary  system,  obtains  and  condenses  the  needful  mate 
rial  from  the  air.  Under  his  genial  influences  a  re 
fined  chemical  operation  is  going  on.  He  extracts 
from  an  invisible  and  noxious  gas — the  same  that  is 
expired  from  our  lungs  in  the  act  of  breathing,  as  use 
less  and  even  poisonous  to  the  system — that  plastic 
material  out  of  which  the  unnumbered  beautiful  plant- 
organs  are  composed.  Plants  are  therefore  nothing 
more  than  condensations  from  the  Air,  their  parts  be 
ing  held  together  by  Force  that  has  been  derived 
from  the  Sun— force  that,  as  it  were,  is  imprisoned  in 


20  ORIGIN  OF  ANIMALS. 

them,  but  ever  ready  to  re-appear.  Each  year,  in  this 
manner,  through  that  arch-chemic  influence,  a  store  of 
Matter  and  of  Force  is  laid  up,  as  we  are  now  to  see, 
for  the  animal  world. 

For,  directly  or  indirectly,  all  animals  find  their  nu 
trition  in  feeding  on  plants.  Even  for  those  called 
carnivorous,  or  flesh -feeders,  the  remark  holds  good. 
They  feed  on  others  that  have  fed  on  plants.  The 
muscles,  and  fat,  and  nerve  substance,  nay,  the  very 
bone,  all  have  come  from  the.  vegetable  world. 

Wherein  is  the  imperious  necessity  that  food  thus 
composed  and  thus  obtained  should  be  used  by  man 
and  other  animals  ?  It  is  for  the  double  purpose  of 
securing  Matter  and  Force.  The  former,  in  being  con 
sumed,  furnishes  the  latter. 

We  have  already  seen  that  an  animal  is  only  a 
transitory  form,  through  which  material  substance  is 
visibly  passing.  A  scientific  examination  of  its  life 
must  include  two  primary  facts.  It  must  consider 
whence  and  in  what  manner  the  stream  of  material 
substance  has  been  derived,  and  whither  it  passes 
away.  And  since  Force  can  not  be  created  from 
nothing,  and  is  in  its  very  nature  indestructible,  it 
must  determine  from  what  source  that  which  is  dis 
played  by  animals  has  been  obtained,  in  what  man 
ner  it  is  employed,  and"  what  disposal  is  made  of  it 
eventually.  The  Force  comes  from  the  Sun,  the  Mat 
ter  from  the  Air. 


RELATION  OF  THE  PLANT  AND  ANIMAL  WORLDS.       21 

t 

But  how  does  all  this  wasted  material,  that  has 
subserved  its  offices  in  animals,  escape  from  them  ? 
To  so 'great  an  extent  by  the  breath,  that,  with  cer 
tain  exceptions  needless  to  notice  here,  it  may  be  said 
that  the  breathing  of  animals  is  essential  to  the  grow 
ing  of  plants.  We  cast  out  into  the  atmosphere  those 
inert  products  no  longer  useful  to  life.  Plants  then 
appropriate  them  under  the  influence  of  the  Sun,  and 
organize  them  again.  And  this  brings  us  back  to  the 
same  truth  that  was  revealed  to  us  by  the  drop  of 
water.  There  is  a  cycle  or  revolution  through  which 
material  particles  suitable  for  organization  incessantly 
run.  At  one  moment  they  exist  as  inorganic  combi 
nations  in  the  air  or  the  soil,  then  as  portions  of 
plants,  then  as  portions  of  animals,  then  they  return 
to  the  air  or  the  soil,  once  more  to  renew  their  cycle 
of  movement.  The  metamorphoses  feigned  by  the 
poets  of  antiquity  have  hence  a  foundation  in  fact; 
and  the  Vegetable  and  Animal,  the  organic  and  inor 
ganic  worlds,  are  indissolubly  bound  together.  Plants 
form,  animals  destroy. 

In  this  relation  of  the  Plant  and  Animal  worlds  to 
each  other,  there  is  a  condition  too  important  to  be 
overlooked.  It  is  their  mutual  interbalancing.  The 
sum  total  of  the  one  must  be  exactly  adjusted  to  that 
of  the  other.  If  either  were  permitted  to  acquire  a 
superiority,  it  would  impress  upon  the  atmosphere 
a  specific  change.  If  animal  life  predominated,  the 


22  CONTROLLING  LAW. 

j)p 

quantity  of  carbonic  acid  would  preponderate;  if 
plant  life,  the  quantity  of  oxygen.  Now  there  is  evi 
dence  the  most  copious,  the  most  satisfactory,  that  for 
many  thousands  of  years  the  relative  quantity  of 
these  ingredients  has  remained  unchanged.  The  at 
mosphere  is  to-day  the  same  in  composition  that  it 
was  sixty  centuries  ago. 

There  must  therefore  have  been  during  that  long 
lapse  of  time  a  rigorous  adjustment  of  the  two  forms 
of  life  to  one  another,  neither  being  permitted  to  gain 
a  superiority,  but  each  minutely  and  exactly  balanced 
to  the  other.  I  will  not  at  present  enter  on  a  descrip 
tion  of  the  simple  manner  in  which  this  equipoise  is 
accomplished,  but  will  be  content  with  the  emphatic 
remark,  that  in  the  most  conspicuous  manner  it  indi 
cates  THE  EXISTENCE  OF  CONTROLLING  LAW. 

The  material  which  has  flowed  through  the  heart 
of  man  as  blood,  is  transferred  by  breathing  to  the 
air,  and  aids  in  the  formation  of  forest-trees  and  flow 
ers.  The  Asiatics,  with  whom  have  originated  all  the 
varieties  of  religious  creeds  that  have  spread  to  any 
extent  in  the  world,  not  unfrequently  asserted  a  trans 
migration  of  souls.  They  would  have  been  much 
nearer  the  truth  had  they  "Relieved  in  a  transmigra 
tion  of  bodies.  The  coal  that  we  burn  is  the  remains 
of  forests  which  in  former  ages  were  thronged  with 
living  things — forests  that  sprang,  as  do  the  trees 
with  us,  from  gases  that  were  formed  by  the  respira- 


NATURE  OF  THE  AIR.  23 

tion  of  animals,  but  of  animals  that  are  now  all  ex 
tinct. 

Atmospheric  air  is  then  the  grand  receptacle  from 
which  all  living  things  come,  and  to  which  they  all 
return.  It  is  the  cradle  of  vegetable,  the  coffin  of 
animal  life.  Made  up  as  it  is  of  atoms  that  have 
once  lived,  that  have  run  through  innumerable  cycles 
of  change,  the  aspect  of  purity  it  presents  conceals  top 
well  its  history.  In  its  ethereal  expanse  are  crowds 
of  particles  that  have  once  blossomed  as  flowers,  or 
participated  in  the  pleasures  and  pains  of  animal  life. 
Their  former  function  discharged,  they  await  their 
turn  of  re-organization,  occupying  themselves  in  trans 
mitting  the  many-colored  beams  of  light,  or  moving  in 
vibration  to  musical  sounds.  A  condition  so  tran 
quil  suits  well  their  former  state  and  future  destiny. 
In  this  general  tomb  the  remains  of  wild  beasts  and 
of  more  ferocious  men  disappear,  until  the  solar  beams 
recall  them  to  life  and  give  them  form  again. 

The  daily  rotation  of  the  Earth  on  her  axis  determ 
ines  periodic  observances  in  the  functions  of  organ 
ized  beings,  and  fixes  their  times  of  activity  and  sleep. 
A  similar  result  attends  her  yearly  motion  in  her  or 
bit.  In  our  latitudes  trees  and  plants  awake  at  the 
coming  of  spring,  and  put  forth  their  leaves  and  flow 
ers,  and  then  sink  again  into  their  annual  slumber. 
Wild  birds  and  beasts  conform  their  habits  to  the 
progress  of  the  seasons,  at  one  time  preparing  to  bring 


24:  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  SEASONS. 

forth  their  young,  at  another  anticipating  with  a  prov 
ident  foresight  the  coming  winter.  It  is  thus  with 
those  flocks  of  pigeons  which  in  countless  myriads 
seek  the  North  in  spring  and  return  to  the  South  in 
autumn ;  thus,  also,  with  the  vast  herds  of  buffaloes 
in  the  West.  The  migrations  of  fishes  that  take  place 
at  given  seasons,  and  which  are  connected  with  the 
well-being  and  wealth  of  nations,  are  determined  by 
the  occurrence  of  astronomical  epochs.  It  is  no  ex 
planation  of  these  curious  facts  to  say  that  they  de 
pend  on  other  facts  like  themselves — that  an  animal 
sleeps  by  night  because  his  prey  is  also  asleep — that 
a  fish  migrates  at  those  periods  when  his  instincts  tell 
him  that  the  food  on  which  he  lives  is  abundant.  If 
in  any  of  these  cases  we  pass  from  fact  to  fact,  we  uni 
formly  come  at  last  to  the  conclusion  that  all  these  in 
cidents  are  under  the  control  of  astronomical  events ; 
that  the  Sun  not  only  determines  periods  of  awaken 
ing  and  sleep,  of  growth  and  decay,  but  that  he  con 
trols  and  regulates  the  movements  of  animated  beings 
all  over  the  face  of  the  Earth.  His  rays,  falling  per 
pendicularly,  produce  the  luxuriant  vegetation  of  tro 
pical  regions,  and  debilitate  and  enervate  the  human 
race.  In  the  polar  regions  their  obliquity  suffers  the 
ground  to  be  always  covered  with  snow,  and  makes 
those  inhospitable  countries  almost  without  inhabit 
ants.  The  trade  winds  also,  blowing  uninterruptedly 
for  ages,  carry  toward  the  poles  immense  quantities  of 


INFLUENCE  OF  THE  OCEAN.  25 

oxygen  gas,  which  the  green  parts  of  plants  throw  into 
the  atmosphere  of  the  torrid  zone.  That  oxygen  is 
evolved  by  light  and  then  disseminated  by  heat.  In 
the  sea  the  same  influence  which  thus  presides  in  the 
air  is  also  at  work.  The  Gulf  Stream,  issuing  from 
the  Mexican  waters,  with  its  temperature  elevated  by 
solar  action,  determines  the  distribution  of  the  Atlan 
tic  fishes:  the  Northern  whale  avoids  its  offensive 
warmth,  and  on  its  sides  shoals  congregate  which  de 
light  in  a  more  genial  heat.  As  it  approaches  the 
coasts  of  Europe,  and  spreads  out  into  a  fan-like  form, 
the  vapors  that  rise  from  it  give  forth  their  latent 
heat  to  the  air,  and  moderate  the  climates  of  England 
and  France.  The  coldness  and  sterility  of  correspond 
ing  latitudes  in  America  are  there  replaced  by  a  bet 
ter  temperature ;  and  agriculture,  the  arts  of  life,  sci 
ence,  and  literature,  have  there  reached  their  greatest 
perfection.  This  physical  agent,  thus  eternally  but  in 
visibly  continuing  its  operation,  produces  a  thousand 
events  in  which  its  agency  is  only  remotely  traced: 
nor  are  those  influences  limited  to  mere  physical  re 
sults  ;  they  stand  in  connection  with  the  progress  of 
society  and  the  evolution  of  mind.  A  full  develop 
ment  of  the  reasoning  faculty  can  only  take  place 
where  physical  circumstances  conspire.  Without  the 
Gulf  Stream,  Newton  would  never  have  written  his 
Principia,  nor  Milton  Paradise  Lost. 

In  these  events,  which  strike  us  forcibly  when  we 


26  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  SUN. 

thus  trace  them  step  by  step  from  their  origin  to  their 
results,  we  are  prone,  at  a  casual  glance,  to  give  too 
much  weight  to  intervening  influences,  and  forget 
the  final  cause.  We  may  assert  that,  with  returning 
seasons,  periods  of  vegetation,  and  the  distribution 
of  plants  and  animals,  astronomical  occurrences  like 
wise  direct  a  thousand  of  those  daily  movements 
taking  place  in  every  part  of  the  world.  There  is  no 
gathered  harvest,  no  desolating  famine,  that  has  not 
sprung  from  an  immediate  connection  with  them.  In 
judging  from  a  narrow  circle  of  observation  or  from 
an  imperfect  experience,  men  are  led  to  regard  these 
as  fortuitous  affairs.  In  truth,  they  are  brought  about 
by  unfailing  and  unchangeable  causes.  The  breeze 
that  for  a  little  time  distends  a  passing  sail — the 
glimpse  of  light,  which,  issuing  through  some  break 
in  the  clouds,  for  a  moment  shines  upon  it,  were  pre 
ordained  from  the  beginning  of  things — they  came  in 
the  resistless  necessities  of  the  case.  If  they  had  not 
occurred,  the  order  of  Nature  had  that  instant  ended. 
From  century  to  century  the  Sun  pours  forth  his  un- 
diminished  stores  of  light  and  heat ;  the  former  out 
of  inorganic  material  constructing  molecules  that  are 
organized,  and  with  them  composing  the  myriads  of 
vegetables  destined  to  support  animal  life ;  the  latter 
controlling  the  movements  •  of  inorganic  things,  divid 
ing  into  climates  the  earth's  surface,  volatilizing  wa 
ter  from  the  sea,  setting  the  wind  in  motion,  and  di- 


UNIFORMITY  OF  PHYSICAL  ACTION.  27 

recting  the  form,  duration,  and  movement  of  the 
clouds.  The  primitive  force  at  work  producing 
these  vital  and  meteorological  phenomena  under 
goes  no  variation  in  intensity  from  year  to  year. 
It  is  therefore  expended  in  producing  the  same 
amount  of  effect.  For  this  reason,  the  droughts  of 
one  country  are  contemporaneous  with  the  abundant 
showers  of  another ;  the  famine  threatening  one  place 
is  compensated  by  harvests  in  another.  As  natural 
laws  were  never  meant  for  individuals,  but  for  uni 
versal  action  on  systems  and  masses,  we  must  take 
care  that  we  are  not  misled  in  our  interpretation  of 
these  incidental  vicissitudes.  Operating  with  unerr 
ing  certainty  and  with  unvarying  force,  the  Sun  car 
ries  on  his  plastic  work,  as  the  Earth  in  her  daily 
rotations  submits  herself  to  his  beams.  From  this  it 
comes  to  pass  that,  though  there  may  be  variations 
in  the  lot  of  particular  individuals  or  of  particular 
nations,  the  common  interests  of  all  are  protected, 
the  common  rights  of  all  upheld.  From  the  very 
beginning  of  things  every  class  of  variation  has  been 
determined  —  where  particular  climates  shall  fall, 
where  particular  temperatures  shall  be  observed, 
what  shall  be  the  speed  of  vegetable  growth,  what 
tribe  of  animals  shall  be  given — and  the  result  re 
mains  fixed  and  invariable. 

If  we  consider  the  successive  races  of  organized 
beings,  beginning  from    the  lowest   and  passing  to 


28  CONTROL  OVER  PLANTS  AtfD  ANIMALS. 

the  higher  tribes,  it  would  seem  as  if  the  gener 
al  idea  under  which  Nature  is  acting  is,  as  the 
more  complex  structures  are  evolved,  to  emancipate 
them  from  the  direct  control  of  external  physical 
forces.  The  Vegetable  Kingdom,  unendued  with  lo 
comotive  powers,  deriving  its  existence  directly  from 
external  agents,  is  completely  under  their  control. 
If  the  summer  is  too  brilliant,  or  rains  do  not  fall,  a 
plant  withers  and  dies.  In  the  same  manner,  the 
lower  races  of  animals  have  their  existence  determ 
ined  by  the  action  of  physical  causes :  if  these  be 
favorable,  they  flourish;  if  unfavorable,  they  must 
submit  to  an  inevitable  lot.  To  tribes  that  are  high 
er,  to  a  certain  extent  the  rigor  of  these  laws  is  re 
mitted,  and  a  certain  amount  of  independence  allow 
ed.  Tire  Lion  can  retire  to  a  shade  in  the  middle 
of  the  day;  yet  still  he  is  held  in  a  state  of  subjec 
tion,  and  instinctively  submits  to  the  operation  of 
an  overruling  power,  and  is  kept  to  the  sands  of  his 
desert,  from  cool  and  temperate  climates.  The  sun 
beam  is  his  chain.  In  man  alone  the  emancipation 
is  complete,  for  nature  has  committed  a  control  of 
her  forces  to  him.  It  matters  not  whether  he  be  in 
the  torrid  zone  -or  the  frigid,  he  can  temper  the  sea 
sons  by  resorting  to  artifices  of  clothing  or  by  the 
management  of  fire.  He  also  can  dissipate  the  dark 
ness  of  night  by  artificial  light,  prolonging  for  many 
hours  each  day  his  active  existence,  and  increasing 


CONTROL  OVER  MAN.  29 

his  social  enjoyments.  Developed  by  civilization,  he 
is  no  more  a  prey  to  the  accidents  of  the  seasons.  If 
the  harvests  in  his  own  country  have  failed  him,  he 
has  created  commerce,  which  brings  him  an  abun 
dance  from  distant  places.  Unlike  inferior  tribes, 
which  instinctively  aim  at  the  result  he  so  perfectly 
accomplishes,  he  does  not  wait  upon  Nature,  but 
compels  her  to  minister  to  him.  Oppressed  by  hun 
ger,  fishes  migrate  in  the  sea,  and  innumerable  flocks 
of  birds  direct  their  flight  through  the  air ;  but  civil 
ized  man,  without  calling  into  action  his  own  locomo 
tive  powers,  puts  his  arm  across  the  globe  and  satis 
fies  his  wants. 

But,  though  thus  seemingly  the  master,  man  is  re 
ally  the  dependant  of  physical  agencies.  The  devel 
opment  of  his  intellect,  which  gives  him  a  control 
over  them,  is,  in  truth,  determined  by  them.  To  be 
satisfied  of  this,  we  have  only  to  compare  the  effect 
of  climates  in  the  torrid,  temperate,  and  frigid  zones. 
We  might  appeal  to  individual  experience  as  to  the 
enervating  effect  of  hot  climates,  or  to  common  ob 
servation  as  to  the  great  influence  exercised  by  at 
mospheric  changes,  not  only  on  our  intellectual  pow 
ers,  but  even  on  our  bodily  well-being.  It  is  within 
a  narrow  range  of  latitude  that  great  men  have  been 
born.  In  the  earth's  southern  hemisphere  not  one 
as  yet  has  appeared. 

Not  without  reason  have  I  in  the  foregoing  pages 


30       ,  SLOW  CHANGES  IN  THE  AIR. 

dwelt  upon  the  control  that  physical  conditions  ex 
ert  over  living  beings,  irrespective  of  their  position 
in  the  scale  of  nature.  For  it  necessarily  follows 
that,'  should  any  thing  transpire  to  impress  a  change 
on  those  physical  conditions,  a  reflected  effect  must 
instantly  be  perceived  in  the  organic  forms.  They 
must  change  too.  Now  the  knowledge  we  have  ac 
quired  of  the  past  history  of  the  earth  instructs  us 
that  her  surface  has  passed  through  many  modifica 
tions,  and  that  her  physical  condition  has  altered  in 
the  slow  course  of  time.  Her  geographical  aspect 
has  undergone  many  mutations ;  there  are  continents 
where  the  sea  once  was,  there  are  oceans  where  there 
was  dry  land.  In  a  remote  antiquity,  the  composi 
tion  of  the  atmosphere  was  not  the  same  as  it  is 
now ;  it  contained  more  carbonic  acid,  less  oxygen 
gas.  The  enormous  quantities  of  coal,  myriads  of 
tons  in  weight,  now  enveloped  in  the  solid  strata, 
once  existed  in  the  air.  Separated  therefrom  by  the 
action  of  the  solar  rays,  the  atmospheric  pressure 
necessarily  became  less.  For  sixty  centuries,  as  I 
have  -  already  remarked,  no  appreciable  change  of 
this  kind  has  occurred ;  and  hence  it  follows  that  a 
period  of  almost  limitless  duration,  so  far  as  our 
standard  of  time  is  concerned,  must  have  elapsed 
before  changes  so  vast  could  be  completed.  How 
slow  the  work,  that  has  not  perceptibly  advanced 
in  many  thousand  years !  And  just  as  the  compo- 


CORRESPONDING  CHANGES  IN  ANIMALS.  31 

sition  of  the  air  and  its  pressure  have  in  this  grad 
ual  manner  passed  through  vast  mutations,  so  like 
wise  has  the  heat  of  the  globe.  There  was  a  time 
when  the  intrinsic  heat — that  is,  that  appertaining  to 
the  Earth  itself — was  so  high,  that  the  climate  dif 
ferences,  such  as  we  now  observe,  were  altogether 
concealed.  But  as  that  intrinsic  heat  gradually  es 
caped  away,  and  the  globe  became  cooler  and  cooler, 
climates  began  to  emerge.  Now  in  this  instance,  -as 
in  the  preceding,  we  are  absolutely  certain  that  there 
has  been  no  recognizable  diminution  in  many  thou 
sand  years.  Astronomical  considerations  establish 
that;  for,  among  other  things,  the  day  must  have 
become  shorter,  which  has  not  been  the  case.  We 
see,  again,  herein  through  what  a  limitless  period 
the  history  of  the  Earth  extends. 

Looking  through  that  limitless  vista,  and  bearing 
in  mind  the  absolute  control  exerted  by  physical 
agencies  over  organic  forms,  on  which  we  have  been 
so  strenuously  insisting,  what  is  it  we  should  expect 
to  see  ?  The  physical  influences — warmth,  and  press 
ure,  and  composition  of  air,  the  distribution  of  land 
and  sea,  and  a  thousand  other  things,  have  changed. 
With  them,  animated  nature  must  also  have  changed. 
In  the  dense  and  noxious  atmosphere  of  the  primeval 
times,  quickly -respiring,  hot-blooded  animals  could 
not  possibly  exist.  Physiology  teaches  us  that  such 
conditions  are  absolutely  incompatible  with  their 


32  EXTINCTION  OF  ANIMALS. 

life ;  and,  in  corroboration,  Geology  proves  that  they 
did  not  appear  until  after  the  purification  of  the  at 
mosphere  had  been  accomplished,  and  the  natural 
conditions  were  in  unison  with  their  mode  of  life. 

The  slowness  of  such  changes  in  natural  condi 
tions  implies,  therefore,  slow  changes  in  the  tribes 
of  plants  and  animals — that  is,  in  all  organic  forms. 
The  former  stands  in  the  attitude  of  a  cause,  the  lat 
ter  in  the  attitude  of  an  effect.  And  in  the  same 
manner  that  in  their  succession,  obediently  to  these 
principles,  the  successive  groups  of  living  things 
made  their  appearance,  so,  too,  in  obedience  to  these 
principles,  numberless  groups,  whose  conditions  of 
life  had  become  incompatible  with  the  changed  ex 
terior  conditions,  were  necessarily  eliminated — that 
is,  became  extinct.  Just  as  the  Mastodon,  which 
once  roamed  all  over  the  American  continent,  dis 
appeared,  through  inability  to  withstand  the  in 
creasing  rigor  of  the  winter,  so  myriads  of  the  in 
habitants  of  the  ocean,  the  land,  the  air,  passed  away. 
The  extinction  of  species  is  a  necessary  natural  inci 
dent. 

It  is  sometimes  objected,  by  those  who  have  not 
duly  weighed  the  vast  body  of  evidence  now  bear 
ing  upon  these  points,  that  we  are  not  authorized  to 
assume  such  a  prodigious  period  for  the  duration  of 
the  Earth  as  these  facts  seem  to  require.  Whoever 
presses  that  objection  must  bear  in  mind  that  these 


OPERATION  OF  NATURAL  LAW.  33 

conclusions  depend  not  on  the  immature  results  of 
a  single  branch  of  science,  but  are  enforced  by  the 
concurrent  testimony  of  all.  Astronomy,  Physiolo 
gy,  Chemistry,  Geology,  bear  a  concordant  evidence. 
It  is  not  the  part  of  wisdom  to  couple  with  a  chro 
nological  fiction  great  moral  considerations  in  which 
the  well-being  of  humanity  is  concerned.  They  will 
share  in  the  discredit  attaching  to  its  inevitable  dis 
comfiture. 

In  the  past  history  of  the  Earth  there  have  then 
been  slow  variations  in  the  vegetable  and  animal 
kingdoms,  caused  by  slow  variations  in  the  condition 
of  external  nature.  Physical  influences  have  modi 
fied  organic  forms.  But  now,  if  we  rise  to  a  higher 
point  of  view,  and  examine  what  has  been  the  cause 
of  the  changes  in  those  controlling  influences  them 
selves,  what  is  it  that  we  see  ?  The  operation  of 
universal  law  !  In  the  special  instance  that  has 
been  occupying  our  attention — the  decline  of  the 
earth's  heat — an  effect  which  has  carried  with  it  the 
most  prodigious  modifications  both  among  living  and 
lifeless  things,  that  decline  has  been  going  on  under 
the  resistless  operation  of  a  law  capable  of  mathemat 
ical  expression — a  law  absolutely  independent,  free 
from  all  possibility  of  change.  Thus,  when  we  pur 
sue  the  scientific  investigation  of  facts  to  the  last  ac 
cessible  point,  there  uniformly  emerges  the  concep 
tion,  the  idea  of  law — law  ever  •  enduring,  exhibiting 

C 


34  OPERATION  OF  NATURAL  LAW. 

no  variation,  "but  so  operating  that  out  of  the  inva 
riable  and  eternal,  the  changeable  and  perishable 
spring  forth. 

We  gather,  therefore,  a  most  important  lesson  from 
inquiries  respecting  the  origin,  maintenance,  distribu 
tion,  and  extinction  of  animals  and  plants,  their  bal 
ancing  against  one  another — from  the  variations  of 
aspect  and  form  of  an  individual  man,  as  determined 
by  climate — from  his  social  state,  whether  in  repose 
or  motion — from  the  secular  variations  of  his  opin 
ions,  and  the  gradual,  dominion  of  reason.  This  les 
son  is,  that  the  government  of  the  world  is  accom 
plished  by  iinmu table  law. 

Such  a  conception  commends  itself  to  the  intellect 
of  man  by  its  majestic  grandeur.  It  makes  him  dis 
cern  the  eternal  through  the  vanishing  of  present 
events,  and  through  the  shadows  of  time.  From 
the  life,  the  pleasures,  the  sufferings  of  humanity,  it 
points  to  the  impassive ;  from  our  wishes,  wants,  and 
woes,  to  the  inexorable. 

But,  in  thus  ascending  to  primordial  laws,  and  as 
serting  their  immutability,  universality,  and  para 
mount  control  in  the  government  of  this  world,  there 
is  nothing  inconsistent  with  the  free  action  of  man. 
The  appearance  of  things  depends  altogether  on  the 
point  of  view  we  occupy.  He  who  is  immersed  in 
the  turmoil  of  a  crowded  city  sees  nothing  but  the 
acts  of  men ;  and,  if  he  formed  his  opinion  from  his 


OPERATION  OF  NATURAL  LAW.  35 

experience  alone,  must  conclude  that  the  course  of 
events  altogether  depends  on  the  uncertainties  of  hu 
man  volition.  But  he  who  ascends  to  a  sufficient 
elevation  loses  sight  of  the  passing  conflicts,  and  no 
longer  hears  the  contentions.  He  discovers  that  the 
importance  of  individual  action  is  diminishing  as  the 
panorama  beneath  him  is  extending.  And  if  he 
could  attain  to  the  truly  philosophical,  the  general 
point  of  view,  disengaging  himself  from  all  terrestrial 
influences  and  entanglements,  rising  high  enough  to 
see  the  whole  globe  at  a  glance,  his  acutest  vision 
would  fail  to  discern  the  slightest  indication  of  man, 
his  free  will  or  his  works. 

In  whatever  direction  we  look,  we  may  therefore 
expect  to  find  proofs  of  the  dominion  of  law.  Even 
in  those  cases  where  the  voluntary  agencies  of  man 
might  seem  to  interfere,  vestiges  of  that  dominion 
are  obvious  enough.  For  instance,  are  not  the  great 
est  number  of  crimes  against  persons  and  property 
among  the  inhabitants  of  river  banks?  Does  not 
the  period  of  maximum  of  crimes  against  persons 
coincide  with  that  which  is  the  minimum  against 
property — that  is  to  say,  the*  summer  season  ?  As 
respects  each  individual,  is*  it  not  well  known  that 
his  tendency  to  crime  is  at  first  against  property,  and 
this  reaches  its  maximum  at  about  twenty-five  years 
of  age?  In  maturer  life  he  substitutes  stratagem 
for  force.  If  brought  up  in  a  liberal  profession,  his 


36  INVARIABILITY  OF  HUMAN  ACTS. 

tendency  to  crime  is  against  persons,  but  that  of  the 
workman  is  against  property.  If  we  look  from  his 
premeditated  sins  to  his  venial  oversights,  we  still 
find  the  same  result.  Of  a  million  of  letters  put  into 
the  Post-office  year  after  year,  there  will  be  a  fixed 
number  misdirected,  and  a  fixed  number  on  which 
he  has  neglected  to  put  any  address  at  all. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  other  sex.  In  France,  the 
tendency  of  females  to  crime,  when  compared  with 
that  of  men,  is  as  23  to  100.  Their  tendency  to  .the 
perpetration  of  offenses  against  persons  is  less  than 
that  for  offenses  against  property  in  the  proportion 
of  16  to  26.  It  also  is  interesting  to  observe  that 
their  physical  force,  if  compared  with  that  of  man,  is 
as  the  same  numbers.  From  these  and  other  such 
considerations,  statesmen  who  have  paid  attention  to 
the  subject  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  mo 
rality  of  men  and  women  is,  if  fairly  estimated,  about 
the  same — a  conclusion,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  very 
flattering  to  the  vanity  of  the  former,  and  therefore, 
in  spite  of  the  whispers  of  gallantry,  we  may  accept 
it  as  substantially  true. 

I  have  descended  to  these  paltry  facts,  and  quoted 
these  seemingly  trivial  numbers,  for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  into  clearer  relief  the  cardinal  doctrine  that 
in  individual  life,  in  social  life,  in  national  life,  every 
thing  is  influenced  by  physical  agents,  and  is  there 
fore  under  the  control  of  law.  Far  from  denying  the 


PHYSIOLOGICAL  ILLUSTRATION  OF  FREE  WILL.  37 

operation  of  man's  free  will,  I  give  to  that  great  truth 
all  the  weight  that  can  be  desired ;  but  then  I  affirm 
there  is  something  that  overrides,  that  forever  keeps 
it  in  check. 

If  the  reader  will  try  a  very  simple  physiological 
experiment  upon  himself,  he  will  probably  come  to  a 
clearer  understanding  of  what  is  here  meant.  Let 
him  execute  with  his  right  hand  the  motion  he 
would  resort  to  in  winding  a  thread  upon  a  reel. 
Then  let  him  do  the  same  thing  with  his  left  hand, 
only  winding  the  opposite  way.  Are  not  these  two 
contrary  motions  wrhich  he  thus  consecutively  accom 
plishes  thoroughly  under  his  control?  He  wills  to 
do  either,  and  forthwith  either  is  done.  Both  illus 
trate  his  voluntary  power.  But  next  let  him  try  to 
do  both — not  successively,  but  simultaneously.  Let 
him  put  forth  all  the  strength  of  his  determination. 
A  free-will  actor,  he  has  now  the  opportunity  of  giv 
ing  an  illustration  of  his  power.  In  the  failure  of  re 
peated  trials,  he  may  discern  what  his  voluntary  de 
terminations  come  to,  and  what  they  are  really  worth. 
He  may  learn  from  this  simple  experiment  that  there 
is  something  that  over-controls  him,  and  puts  a  limit 
to  his  power. 

There  are  physiological  laws  that  constrain  society. 
There  are  physical  boundaries  beyond  which  society 
can  not  pass.  There  are  ends  that  no  human  legisla 
tion  can  accomplish. 


38  EFFECTS  OF  CLIMATE  ON  PLANTS. 

The  publication  of  Humboldt's  Essay  on  the  Ge 
ography  of  Plants  first  forcibly  drew  the  attention 
of  thinking  persons  to  the  control  of  climate  over 
vegetables.  Under  the  equator,  where  the  heat  is 
greatest,  the  Palm-tree,  with  its  coronet  of  leaves,  the 
banana  and  luxuriant  climbing  plants,  give  to  the 
landscape  its  tropical  characteristics.  Advancing  to 
the  north  or  to  the  south,  where  the  temperature  is 
somewhat  lower,  there  are  evergreen  woods  in  which 
flourish  the  orange  and  myrtle.  Still  journeying  far 
ther,  these  are  succeeded  by  a  zone  of  deciduous 
trees,  such  as  the  oak  and  the  chestnut,  and  here 
the  great  climbers  of  the  tropics  are  replaced  by 
the  hop  and  the  ivy.  Beyond,  in  a  cooler  zone,  is 
a  belt  of  firs,  larches,  pines,  and  other  needle -leaved 
trees ;  and  this,  as  we  advance  to  the  pole,  leads  us 
through  birches  and  mosses  to  the  perpetually  snow- 
covered  ground  where  vegetation  ceases. 

So,  in  like  manner,  as  Tourneforte  observed,  a 
similar  zone  distribution  occurs  on  the  sides  of 
mountains;  the  plants,  as  we  ascend  to  the  snow- 
covered  peaks,  being  analogous  to  those  occurring  in 
succession  on  the  surface  as  we  advance  to  the  poles. 
He  first  detected  this  fact  while  ascending  Mount 
Ararat,  about  the  year  1700,  having  previously  stud 
ied  the  surface  distribution  in  traveling  from  the  Le 
vant  to  Lapland. 

In  both  these  distributions  the  regulating  condi- 


INFLUENCE  OF  CLIMATE  ON  PLANTS.  39 

tion  is  the  declining  heat.  That  is  the  only  cause 
common  to  the  two  cases.  The  temperature  becomes 
lower  as  we  travel  toward  the  pole,  or  ascend  the 
mountain's  side. 

Now,  should  any  thing  occur  to  occasion  a  change 
in  this  arrangement  of  climate  zones,  a  corresponding 
movement  would  undoubtedly  occur  in  the  zones 
of  plant  distribution.  Nay,  more  than  that,  species 
unable  to  stand  the  change  would  at  once  become 
extinct ;  or  if  it  occurred  very  slowly,  they  might,  by 
undergoing  modifications,  be  accommodated  to  it  or 
acclimatized.  So  heat  not  only  arranges  the  distribu 
tion  of  vegetable  forms  on  the  face  of  the  Earth,  it 
can  also  determine  their  extinction  or  occasion  their 
transformation. 

The  influence  of  such  variations  of  temperature  is 
seen  when  we  examine  particular  plants  in  different 
localities.  Thus  the  Virginia  cherry  attains  a  height 
of  a  hundred  feet  in  the  Southern  States,  but  it  is 
dwarfed  to  a  shrub  of  not  more  than  five  feet  at  the 
Great  Slave  Lake.  The  Nasturtium,  which  is  a 
woody  shrub  in  warm  climates,  is  a  succulent  an 
nual  in  cold.  From  such  facts  we  learn  this  all-im 
portant  lesson — that  organisms  of  every  kind,  so  far 
from  presenting  any  resistance  to  change,  yield  help 
lessly  to  the  influences  to  which  they  are  exposed. 
The  value  of  this  conclusion,  in  its  application  to  the 
case  of  man,  we  shall  soon  see. 


40  INFLUENCE  OF  CLIMATE  ON  MAN. 

The  aspect  of  man  in  color  and  form  oscillates  be 
tween  two  extremes.  Submitted  for  a  due  time  to  a 
high  temperature,  he  will  become  dark,  or  if  to  a  low 
temperature,  he  wdll  become  fail1.  The  form  of  the 
skull  will  also  alter.  No  race  is  in  a  state  of  abso 
lute  unchangeability,  or  able  successfully  to  maintain 
its  present  physiognomy,  if  the  circumstances  under 
which  it  lives  undergo  alteration.  It  holds  itself 
ready  with  equal  facility  to  descend  to  a  baser  or  to 
rise  to  a  more  elevated  state,  in  correspondence  to 
those  circumstances. 

That  climate  does  thus  influence  complexion  is 
clearly  illustrated  by  the  natural  history  of  the  Jews. 
These  men,  indisputably  derived  from  a  common 
stock,  have  different  colors  in  different  countries.  In 
the  north  of  Europe  they  are  fair,  having  blue  eyes 
and  red  beards.  As  we  trace  them  in  their. south 
easterly  distribution,  their  color  deepens  by  degrees. 
In  Palestine  they  have  become  tawny,  in  India  of  a 
deep  brown,  in  Malabar  almost  black.  I  do  not  con 
sider  that  the  recent  affirmation  of  the  existence  of 
two  distinct  Hebrew  tribes,  the  auburn-bearded  and 
the  black-bearded,  can  be  either  historically  or  physi 
ologically  sustained.  A  still  more  general  instance 
is  offered  by  the  race  to  which  we  belong,  the  Indo- 
European,  which  reaches  from  Hindostan  to  the  Brit 
ish  Isles.  That  this  is  one  homogeneous  family,  de 
rived  from  a  common ,  stock,  is  proved  by  the  affini- 


INDO-EUKOl'EANS.  4-1 

ties  of  its  various  languages  to  the  Sanscrit.  In  near 
ly  all  those  various  tongues,  the  family  names,  Father, 
Mother,  Brother,  Sister,  Daughter,  are  the  same  re 
spectively.  A  similar  equivalence  may  be  observed  in 
a  great  many  familiar  objects — House,  Door,  Town, 
Path.  It  has  been  remarked  that  while  this  holds 
good  for  terms  of  a  peaceful  nature,  many  of  those 
connected  with  warfare  and  the  chase  are  different  in 
the  different  languages.  Such  facts  appear  to  prove 
that  the  emigrating  column  followed  a  nomadic  and 

o  O 

pastoral  life.  Many  of  the  terms  connected  with 
such  an  avocation  are  widely  diffused.  This  is  the 
case  with  plowing,  grinding,  weaving,  cooking,  baking, 
sewing,  spinning;  with  such-  objects  as  com,  flesh, 
meat,  vestment;  with  wild  animals  common  to  Eu 
rope  and  Asia,  as  the  bear  and  the  wolf.  So,  too,  of 
words  connected  with  social  organization  —  despot, 
rex,  queen.  The  numerals  from  1  to  100  coincide  in 
Sanscrit,  Greek,  Latin,  Lithuanian,  Gothic ;  but  this 
is  not  the  case  with  1000,  a  fact  which  has  led  com 
parative  philologists  to  the  conclusion  that  though, 
at  the  time  of  the  emigration,  a  sufficient  intellectual 
advance  had  been  made  to  invent  the  decimal  sys 
tem,  perhaps  from  counting  upon  the  fingers,  yet  that 
it  was  very  far  from  perfection.  To  the  inhabitants 
of  Central  Asia  the  sea  was  altogether  unknown ; 
hence  the  branches  of  the  emigrating  column,  as  they 
diverged  north  and  south,  gave  it  different  names. 


42  THE  BLUE-EYED  RACES. 

But,  though  unacquainted  with  the  sea,  they  were 
familiar  with  salt,  as  is  proved  by  the  recurrence  of 
its  name.  The  bread-corn  of  the  North  is  called  rye, 
that  of  the  South  rice.  Nor  is  it  in  the  vocabularies 
alone  that  these  resemblances  are  remarked;  the 
same  is  to  be  said  of  the  grammar. 

Of  this  homogeneous  family  of  men,  the  Indo-Eu 
ropean,  the  complexion  in  the  northwest  is  light,  but 
it  darkens  toward  the  southeast  of  India ;  and,  as  if 
to  guide  us  to  the  operating  cause,  this  uniform  deep 
ening  of  the  tint  is  broken  through  here  and  there  as 
we  cross  regions  more  elevated  above  the  sea,  and 
therefore  having  a  lower  temperature.  The  inhabit 
ants  of  the  Caucasus  and  of  the  elevations  of  the 
Himmaleh  Mountains  are  as  light  as  the  Southern 
Europeans,  and  there  very  frequently  is  seen  the 
auburn-bearded  and  blue  or  gray  eyed  man. 

As  plants  may  be  modified  by  heat,  so,  too,  may 
men.  The  Roman  authors  bear  their  concurrent  tes 
timony  to  the  fact  that,  twenty  centuries  ago,  the  in 
habitants  of  Britain,  Gaul,  and  Germany  were  red- 
haired  and  blue -eyed.  But  no  one  would  accept 
such  a  description  as  correct  in  our  times.  This 
gradual  disappearance  of  the  light  complexioned  may 
be  said,  in  one  sense,  to  l?e  due  to  a  climate  change 
that  has  been  artificially  produced.  The  starved, 
half -naked,  and  almost  houseless  peasant  savage  of 
the  times  of  Caesar  struggled  in  his  native  .forest  with 


CHANGES  OF  THE  SKULL.  43 

the  cold.  The  well-fed,  well- clothed,  well-housed  la 
borer  now  is  literally  living  in  a  warmer  and  more 
genial  climate.  Glass  windows  that  keep  out  the 
weather,  wooden  floors  and  stoves,  have  proved  to  be 
equivalent  to  a  more  southerly  locality. 

But  it  is  not  alone  complexion  that  is  altered ;  the 
form  of  the  skull  is  also  changed.  We  should  here 
remember  the  well -ascertained  fact  that  the  skull  is 
modeled  by  the  brain,  and  not  the  brain  compressed 
into  form  by  the  skull. 

There  are  two  typical  forms  of  skull,  popularly  dis 
tinguished  as  the  savage  and  the  civilized.  The  for 
mer  gives  a  detestable  aspect  to  the  countenance — a 
receding  forehead,  over  which  the  hair  encroaches  on 
the  eyebrows;  the  nostrils  gaping,  and  seeming  to 
enter  directly  backward  into  the  head ;  the  jaw  pro 
jecting,  the  mouth  open,  the  teeth  uncovered.  In 
the  other  the  forehead  is  vertical;  the  brow  expan 
sive,  and  with  an  air  of  intellectuality ;  the  face  capa 
ble  of  expressing  the  most  refined  emotions ;  the  eyes 
in  an  indescribable  but  significant  manner  manifest 
the  exalted  powers  of  the  mind,  and  the  lips  are  com 
posed  or  compressed. 

Between  these  two  typical  extremes  there  are 
many  intermediate  forms.  Extreme  heat  or  extreme 
cold,  a  life  of  physical  hardship,  tend 'to  the  produc 
tion  of  the  baser;  a  life  of  ease  in  a  genial  climate,  to 
the  higher  type.  And  since  our  pursuits,  and  there- 


44  SYMMETRY  OF  THE  BRAIN. 

fore  our  modes  of  thought,  and  therefore  our  feelings, 
depend  upon  the  climate  we  are  living  in,  its  influ 
ences  will  be  indicated  by  the  general  construction 
of  the  brain,  and  therefore  by  the  form  of  the  skull. 

For  perfection  in  the  construction  of  the  brain 
many  conditions  must  be  satisfied.  It  is  not  mere 
mass  alone  that  is  required,  but  also  symmetrical  or 
ganization  of  the  several  parts.  The  most  prominent 
characteristic  of  this  organ  is  its  symmetrical  double- 
ness.  It  consists  of  two  halves,  a  right  and  a  left ; 
halves  they  ought  hardly  to  be  called,  for  each  is 
complete  in  itself,  and  resembles  its  fellow.  Every 
person  has  thus  two  perfect  brains,  each  of  which 
can  conduct  most  of  the  usual  mental  acts.  And,  in 
deed,  this  symmetrical  doubleness  occurs  throughout 
all  that  portion  of  the  nervous  system  which  is  de 
voted,  as  physiologists  term  it,  to  animal  life:  so 
much  so,  that  it  might  be  affirmed  that  every  person 
is  composed  of  two  symmetrical  individuals,  a  right 
one  and  a  left,  which  to  a  certain  extent  lead  inde 
pendent  lives:  for  instance,  one  may  be  struck  by 
palsy,  the  other  may  escape. 

These  double  organs  do  not  double  the  intensity 
of  our  perceptions,  but  only  render  them  more  pre 
cise.  For  current  uses  one  side  of  the  brain  alone 
may  be  employed,  but  when  we  require  greater  ex 
actness  both  are  brought  into  play.  They  can  give 
a  separate,  or  a  conjoint,  or,  as  some  singular  facts 


CLIMATE  EFFECT  ON  THE  BRAIN.  45 

show,  an  alternating  action.  How  often,  when  one 
hemisphere  is  engaged  in  some  ordinary  pursuit  re 
quiring  its  steady  application,  does  the  other  disturb 
it  with  suggestions  of  a  different  kind,  as  by  a  strain 
of  music  or  by  a  line  of  poetry.  We  may  indulge 
simultaneously  in  two  trains  of  thought,  but  never  in 
three,  for  the  simple  reason  that  we  have  a  double, 
but  not  a  triple  brain.  So,  in  the  pleasing  operation 
of  castle -building,  one  hemisphere  listens  to  the  ro 
mance  suggestions  of  the  other,  accepting  them  with 
gravity  as  if  they  were  true,  though  very  well  know 
ing  that  its  comrade  is  only  telling  it  a  lie. 

Whatever  interferes  with  the  absolute  equality  of 
the  right  and  left  portions  of  the  brain,  affects  the 
working  of  the  mind.  A  skillful  performer  on  the 
piano  must  use  both  hands  with  equal  ease,  and  in 
like  manner  there  is  an  ambi- dexterity  of  the  brain. 
The  metaphorical  expression,  a  well-balanced  mind, 
has  really  a  profound  scientific  meaning.  But,  for 
securing  in  such  a  delicate  organ  as  this  absolute 
symmetry,  how  favorable  all  the  external  circum 
stances  must  "be !  An  intolerable  heat,  a  rigorous 
cold,  misery,  want,  a  depressed  social  state,  render  ?.t 
almost  impossible. 

Such  are  some  of  the  singular  results  of  the  sepa 
rate  operation  of  the  two  portions  of  the  brain.  In 
their  conjoint  action  they  present  many  facts  well 
worthy  of  our  attention.  If  one  is  inferior  in  organ- 


46  ^PERFECTIONS  OF  THE  BKAIN. 

ization  to  the  other,  it  will,  under  certain  circum 
stances,  act  discordantly,  and  insubordination  or  a 
want  of  consentaneous  action  occur.  In  inany  cases 
of  insanity  the  healthy  half  is  unable  to  control  the 
diseased  one,  and  hence  we  often  observe  in  the  in 
sane  that  they  have  synchronously,  or,  at  all  events,  in 
very  rapid  succession,  two  distinct  trains  of  thought, 
and,  consequently,  two  distinct  utterances,  each  of 
which  may  be  perfectly  continuous,  or  even  sane  by 
itself,  but  the  incongruities  arising  from  the  commin 
gling  of  the  two  betray  the  condition  of  such  per 
sons.  To  a  less  marked  extent — the  same  principle 
still,  however,  holding  good — we  may  attribute  the 
various  declining  degrees  of  mental  brightness,  until 
we  come  to  persons  who  are  intellectually  quite  ob 
tuse  and  hardly  able  to  reason.  Such  dullness  may 
arise  from  a  want  of  lateral  symmetry,  or  from  defect 
ive  development  of  the  organ  as  respects  the  three 
lobes  it  exhibits  when  viewed  in  the  front  and  back 
direction,  or  from  absolute  deficiency  in  its  size.  In 
the  former  case,  the  overcoming  of  insubordination 
of  one  of  the  hemispheres  may  to  a  considerable  ex 
tent  be  accomplished  by  education,  of  which  one  of 
the  chief  results  is,  that  it  exercises  us  in  the  habit 
of  thinking  of  one  thing  at  a  time — of  thinking,  there 
fore,  without  confusion,  and  of  arriving  at  conclusions 
with  precision  and  decision. 

But  education,  no  matter  how  excellent  it  may  be, 


EFFECTS  OF  CLIMATE  ON  THE  BRAIN.  47 

can  never  establish  an  intellectual  equality  among 
men.  It  can  do  no  more  than  bring  each  up  to  the 
standard  that  the  perfection  of  his  brain  admits. 
There  it  must  stop;  and  hence  in  all  communities 
there  must  be  descending  grades  of  humanity.  The 
lower  social  strata  have  a  different  direction  of 
thought  from  the  higher.  It  is  impossible  to  edu 
cate  them  completely,  though  it  is  possible  to  finish 
their  education.  It  matters  not  in  what  direction 
their  thoughts  may  be  turned,  the  tokens  of  incapaci 
ty  appear.  Their  conceptions  of  political  progress 
dwindle  into  a  change  of  men.  In  the  face  of  end 
less  disappointments,  they  think  that  they  can  gain 
their  object  by  that  inadequate  device. 

Now  not  unintentionally  have  I  been  led  into  this 
digression  on  the  modes  of  action  of  the  brain.  That 
organ  is  the  instrument  through  which  the  mind 
works.  An  artisan  can  naver  display  his  skill  if  his 
tools  be  imperfect ;  the  mind  can  never  demonstrate 
its  innate  excellence  through  a  faulty  apparatus. 
And  hence  we  see  that  all  that  has  been  said  about 
the  influence  of  climate  in  controlling  the  develop 
ment  of  man  boars  powerfully  on  this  point.  Our 
pursuits,  our  feelings,  our  modes  of  thought,  depend 
on  the  theatre  in  which  we  live. 

When  a  nation  emigrates  to  a  new  country,  the 
climate  of  which  differs  from  that  of  the  country  it 
has  left,  it  slowly  passes  through  modifications,  at- 


48  MODIFICATIONS  OF  MEN  BY  CLIMATE. 

tempting,  as  it  were,  to  adapt  itself  to  the  changed 
circumstances  under  which  it  has  now  to  live.  Many 
generations  may  be  consumed  before  a  complete  cor 
respondence  between  its  physiological  condition  and 
the  climate  to  which  it  is  exposed  is  attained. 

Its  different  classes  will  not  make  this  movement 
with  equal  facility;  some  will  accomplish  it  more 
quickly,  others  more  slowly.  Even  when  an  equi 
librium  has  been  reached  as  completely  as  possible, 
there  will  still  be  distinct  orders  plainly  enough  per 
ceptible  among  them.  These  orders  depend  upon  a 
difference  in  individual  intellectual  development. 

To  bring  these  general  principles  to  bear  on  the 
special  case  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States, 
it  is  necessaiy  to  examine  the  topographical  construc 
tion  of  the  country,  to  examine  its  physical  condition, 
its  climate,  its  products,  for  such  are  the  influences 
that  model  the  character  and  determine  the  thoughts 
of  men. 

The  UNITED  STATES  reach  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific,  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The 
midst  of  this  vast  territory  is  depressed  so  as  to  form 
a  valley,  ranging  north  and  south,  drained  by  a  noble 
river.  '  The  Missouri-Mississippi,  arising  from  the  con 
vergence  of  hundreds  of  streams,  is  nearly  4500  miles 
long,  and  navigable  for  nearly  3800  miles. 

This  valley  enjoys  all  the  varieties  of  climate  and 
all  the  diversities  of  physical  character.  At  its  limit 


DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  49 

in  the  far  north  it  presents  the  vegetation  of  an  al 
most  sub-arctic  country;  at  the  south,  opening  into 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  it  has  all  the  luxuriant  foliage  of 
the  tropics.  Its  upper  end  is  flanked  by  the  great 
lakes.  They  contain  nearly  twelve  thousand  cubic 
miles  of  water — it  is  said,  though  perhaps  erroneous 
ly,  half  the  fresh  water  of  the  globe !  The  gigantic 
character  of  the  forms  into  which  the  continent  is 
cast  is  illustrated  by  %the  Cataract  of  Niagara,  the 
most  imposing  waterfall  in  the  world. 

On  the  east,  the  great  valley  is  walled  in  by  the 
ridge  groups  of  the  Alleghany  system.  At  their  foot 
is  the  Atlantic  plain,  reaching  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
nearly  level,  and  raised  but  little  above  that  sea. 
This  plain  increases  from  a  few  miles  in  width  at  the 
north,  to  150  at  the  south.  It  is  intersected  by  a 
ridge  of  primary  rocks,  over  which  its  rivers  fall,  and 
which  in  many  places  is  the  tide  boundary  and  head 
of  navigation.  This  ledge  therefore  determines  the 
sites  of  many  of  the  large  towns  or  centres  of  com 
merce.  The  plain  itself  is  full  of  swamps,  morasses, 
sluggish  streams.  It  is  infested  with  fever. 

On  the  west,  leaving  the  line  of  the  Mississippi 
and  ascending  the  incline  that  culminates  in  the  Pa 
cific  coast  mountains,  the  aspect  of  Nature  exhibits  a 
gradual  change.  At  first,  ;n  the  ravines,  there  are 
thickets  of  the  long -leaved  willow,  and  roses,  the 
most  beautiful  of  the  prairie  flow^BB»-=.Ajitelopes  and 

D/P 

UNIVERSITY 


50  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Deer  run  over  the  hills.  In  every  direction  the 
leaves  of  the  prairie  sage  shine  like  silver  as  the 
wind  turns  them  up  to  the  sun.  The  streams  are 
fringed  with  'cottonwood  and  groves  of  oak,  tenant 
ed  by  flocks  of  turkeys.  As  the  traveler  advances, 
the  cacti — plants  that  love  dryness — become  more 
and  more  numerous,  and  the  shifting  sands  are  work 
ed  into  hills  by  the  wind.  In  the  streams,  the  beaver, 
yearly  diminishing  in  numbers,  builds  his  dam ;  on 
the  plains  the  prairie  dog  excavates  his  subterraneous 
village. 

Still  more  westwardly,  the  characteristic  of  the 
country  is  its  extreme  dryness.  In  a  long  day's  jour 
ney  water  may  not  be  met  with.  As  the  elevation 
increases,  every  thing  looks  as  if  it  had  been  swept 
by  fire;  even  the  stunted  and  dead  pines  present  the 
prevailing  dull,  ash -colored  hue  of  desolation.  The 
bare  hills  assume  grotesque  forms  of  domes  and  min 
arets,  half  deceiving  the  traveler  into  the  belief  that 
he  is  approaching  some  city  of  magicians  in  the  des 
ert.  In  this  sandy  and  sterile  region,  the  rich  herb 
age  and  nutritious  grasses,  that  had  furnished  on  the 
immense  prairies  pasturage  for  countless  thousands 
of  buffaloes,  have  given  place  to  odoriferous  plants 
with  shrunken  leaves.  The  snow  line  of  the  mount 
ains,  which  even  in  the  height  of  summer  whitens 
the  horizon,  marks  out  the  culminating  ridge.  The 
topography  of  the  West  differs  from  that  of  the  East 


,  CLIMATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  51 

in  this,  that  the  highest  range  of  mountains  is  near 
est  to  the  sea.  The  Coast  Range  and  the  Sierra  Ne 
vada  surpass  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  Columbia 
River  alone  breaks  through  the  enormous  barrier, 
and,  in  a  region  of  gigantic  pines,  delivers  its  waters 
into  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

Such  is  the  domain  of  the  United  States.  It  is 
necessary,  next,  to  consider  its  climate.  On  climate 
depends  the  distribution  of  vegetable  and  animal 
life;  it  also  determines  the  pursuits  and  character 
of  men. 

If  a  traveler  leaves  the  coast  of  New  England  and 
goes  to  the  West,  he  encounters  successively  four 
well-marked  strands  of  climate.  On  the  sea-board 
the  temperature  is  moderated  by  the  ocean ;  at  a  lit 
tle  distance  in  the  interior  there  is  an  excessive  con 
trast  in  the  seasons ;  gaining  the  region  of  the  lakes, 
a  moderate  climate  is  again  met  wrflh,  and  still  be 
yond  that  another  excessive  one.  These  vicissitudes 
arise  from  the  action  of  great  bodies  of  water,  such 
as  the  Atlantic  and  the  Lakes,  in  equalizing  the  heat. 
Along  those  parallels  of  latitude  the  mean  annual 
temperature  varies  very  little.  The  climate  differ 
ence  is  due  to  the  unequal  distribution  of  heat 
among  the  seasons. 

In  excessive  climates  winter  abruptly  changes  into 
summer  with  scarcely  any  intervening  spring,  and 
vegetation  receives  a  sudden  impulse.  The  charac- 


52  CLIMATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  % 

ter  of  man  is  also  affected ;  for  its  proper  develop 
ment  a  succession  of  seasons  is  necessary.  The  ab 
sence  of  summer  is  the  absence  of  taste  and  genius ; 
where  there  is  no  winter  loyalty  is  unknown. 

From  the  North  let  us  turn  to  the  South.  If  a 
traveler  leaves  the  Atlantic  coast  of  Upper  Florida, 
where  a  high  temperature  always  predominates,  thf 
Ocean  and  the  Mexican  Gulf  conjointly  control  the 
heat,  and  the  seasons  glide  into  one  another  without 
marked  extremes.  There  is  a  perpetual  verdure. 
The  Palmetto,  the  Orange,  the  Fig,  grow  without 
danger  from  the  frost.  There  is  no  longer  that  vio 
lent  contrast  between  summer  and  winter  experi 
enced  at  the  North.  For  instance,  at  Fort  Snelling, 
in  Minn.,  the  difference  of  the  mean  temperature  of 
those  seasons  is  56°;  in  Florida  it  is  scarcely  12°, 
The  skies  are  also  clearer.  While  on  the  Lakes 
there  are  only '117  fair  days  in  a  year,  on  the  Flor 
ida  coast  there  are  more  than  250. 

Though  it  is  only  a  mere  fringe  of  country  that  I  • 
have  here  considered,  enough  has  been  said  to  bring 
into  relief  the  chief  conclusion  at  which  those  wl:o 
have  carefully  and  attentively  studied  this  subject 
have  long  ago  arrived,  viz.,  that  the  climate  is  more 
equable  in  the  South  than  it  is  in  the  North.  The 
irresistible  consequence  of  this  is,  that  in  the  South 
the  pursuits  of  men  have  a  greater  sameness,  their 
interests  are  more  identical,  they  think  and  act  alike. 


CHARACTER  OF  MEN  IN  THE  NORTH  AND  SOUTH.       53 

In  the  North,  the  avocations  of  men  must  exhibit 
great  differences.  On  the  sea-board  the  commercial 
and  manufacturing  element  must  predominate ;  then, 
through  a  broad  zone,  the  agricultural.  Ascending 
the  incline  to  the  mountain  range,  they  must  become 
mineralogical,  a  similar  variation  occurring  in  an  in 
verse  order  as  the  descent  is  made  to  the  Pacific. 
The  sandy  desert  can  not  fail  to  impress  its  special 
effects.  These  variations  of  interests  and  pursuits 
must  produce  a  more  heterogeneous  population,  and 
a  great  difference  in  intentions  and  thoughts. 

Let  us  look  at  this  more  closely.  Let  us  recall 
some  of  those  results  which  Physiologists  and  Phil 
osophical  historians  have  proved  to  be  the  conse 
quences  of  those  influences  in  Europe — results  none 
the  less  interesting  because  they  are  old.  Though 
holding  good  for  another  continent,  they  suggest  ap 
plications  in  ours. 

In  the  North  th.e  alternation  of  winter  and  sum 
mer  allots  for  the  life  of  man  distinct  and  different 
duties.  Summer  is  the  season  of  outdoor  labor,  win 
ter  is  spent  in  the  dwelling.  In  the  South  labor  may 
be  continuous,  though  it  may  vary.  The  Northern 
man  must  do  to-day  that  which  the  Southern  man 
may  put  off  till  to-morrow.  For  this  reason  the 
Northern  man  must  be  industrious;  the  Southern 
may  be  indolent,  having  less  foresight  and  a  less 
tendency  to  regulated  habits.  The  cold,  bringing 


54       CHARACTER  OF  MEN  IN  THE  NORTH  AND  SOUTH. 

with  it  a  partial  cessation  from  labor,  affords  also 
an  opportunity  for  forethought  and  reflection;  and 
hence  the  Northern  man  acquires  a  habit  of  not  act 
ing  without  consideration,  and  is  slower  in  the  initia 
tion  of  his  movements.  The  Southern  man  is  prone 
to  act  without  reflection;  he  does  not  fairly  weigh 
the  last  consequences  of  what  he  is  about  to  do. 
The  one  is  cautious,  the  other  impulsive.  Winter, 
with  its  cheerlessness  and  discomforts,  gives  to  the 
Northern  man  his  richest  blessing ;  it  teaches  him  to 
cling  to  his  hearthstone  and  his  family.  In  times  of 
war  that  blessing  proves  to  be  his  weakness ;  he  is 
vanquished  if  his  dwelling  be  seized.  The  Southern 
man  cares  nothing  for  that.  Cut  off  from  the  prompt 
ings  of  external  Nature  for  so  large  a  portion  of  the 
year,  the  mind  in  the  North  becomes  self  -  occupied ; 
it  contents  itself  with  but  few  ideas,  which  it  consid 
ers  from  many  points  of  view.  It  is  apt  to  fasten  it 
self  intently  on  one,  and  pursue  it  with  fanatical  per 
severance.  A  Southern  nation,  which  is  continually 
under  the  influence  of  the  sky,  which  is  continually 
prompted  to  varying  thoughts,  will  indulge  in  a  su 
perfluity  of  ideas,  and  deal  with  them  all  superficial 
ly  ;  more  volatile  than  reflective,  it  can  never  have  a 
constant  love  for  a  fixed  constitution.  Once  resolved 
to  act,  the  intention  of  the  North,  sustained  by  rea 
son  alone,  will  outlast  the  enthusiasm  of  the  South. 
In  physical  courage  the  two  are  equal;  but  the 


VARIETIES  OF  AMERICAN  CLIMATE.  55 

North  will  prevail,  through  its  habits  of  labor,  of 
method,  and  its  inexorable  perseverance.  Long  ago, 
writers  who  have  paid  attention  to  these  subjects 
have  affirmed  that  the  South  will  fight  for  the  ben 
efit  of  its  leaders,  but  the  North  \vill  conquer  for  the 
benefit  of  all.  To  convince  the  man  who  lives  under 
a  roof,  an  appeal  must  be  made  to  his  understand 
ing  ;  to  convince  him  who  lives  under  the  sky,  the 
appeal  must  be  to  his  feelings. 

Such  are  some  of  the  general  consequences  ensuing 
from  the  action  of  climate  upon  men,  and  such  repre 
sent  the  effects  which  are  occurring  or  have  occurred 
on  the  population  of  the  North  American  continent. 
The  description  I  have  given  of  this  vast  theatre  of 
human  life,  though  very  superficial,  is  yet  sufficient 
to  impress  the  reader  with  a  conviction  of  the  won 
derful  variations  of  climate  it  presents — great  differ 
ences  in  annual  mean  temperature,  and  still  greater 
ones  in  the  distribution  of  heat  through  the  seasons. 

But  heat  is  only  one  of  the  controlling  vital  condi 
tions.  There  are  equally  striking  contrasts  in  the 
moisture  and  dryness  of  different  regions;  in  the 
number  of  fair  and  of  rainy  days  in  the  year ;  in  the 
range  of  movement  in  the  barometer — that  is,  in  the 
pressure  of  the  air ;  in  the  brightness  of  the  light,  or 
in  its  reverse  dullness  or  cloudiness  of  the  skies ;  in 
topographical  altitudes  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 
These  and  very  many  more  such  physical  influences 


56  MODIFIED  MEN  IN  AMERICA. 

exhibit  a  surprising  complexity;  and  yet  the  more 
insignificant,  as  well  as  the  more  important,  impress 
modifications  on  the  constitution  of  man. 

From  this,  therefore,  it  follows  that  such  a  conti 
nent,  when  its  inhabitants  shall  have  reached  a  con 
cordance  with  the  conditions  to  which  they  are  ex 
posed,  will  present  numberless  examples  of  modified 
men;  the  type  from  which  they  originated  yielding 
helplessly  to  the  powers  operating  upon  it,  and  suf 
fering  variations  not  only  in  complexion,  but  in  inte 
rior  constitution  too.  And  since  the  American  con 
tinent  not  only  rivals,  but  exceeds  the  continent  of 
Europe  in  these  differences,  it  necessarily  follows 
that  the  families  of  modified  men  destined  eventual 
ly  to  be  found  upon  it  will  be  correspondingly  more 
numerous  than  those  now  found  on  the  Continent  of 
Europe.  The  great  differences  so  strikingly  observed 
in  the  intellectual  conceptions,  and  even  in  the  man 
ner  of  thinking,  in  the  Old  World,  will  be  exceeded 
in  the  New. 

That  social  stagnation  so  characteristic  of  Asia  de 
pends  primarily  on  the  equilibrium  that  has  been  at 
tained,  in  the  lapse  of  many  ages,  between  the  strands 
of  its  population  and  the  climate  zones  in  which  they 
dwell.  To  no  insignificant  extent  may  the  same  be 
perceived  in  Europe,  especially  among  the  lower,  that 
is,  among  the  less  locomotive  portion  of  the  inhabit 
ants.  But  in  no  part  of  America  has  that  exact  con- 


EFFECT  OF  LOCAL  CLIMATE  CHANGES.  57 

cordance  as  yet  had  time  or  opportunity  to  be  truly  es 
tablished,  though  in  the  Southern  States  an  approach 
has  been  made  to  it.  Moreover,  the  climate  is  con. 
tinually  undergoing  local  modifications  through  the 
operations  of  agriculture  and  other  causes,  and  the 
conditions  under  which  life  is  carried  on  in  civilized 
communities  are  varying  through  the  introduction 
of  new  and  important  inventions.  The  construction 
of  houses,  and  the  means  of  combating  the  rigors  of 
winter  by  the  better  warming  of  them ;  the  increas 
ing  resort  to  a  preservation  of  ice,  to  meet  in  various 
applications  the  heats  of  summer ;  a  habit  of  resort 
ing  to  higher  and  cooler  regions  for  the  same  pur 
pose,  are  all  having  their  effect.  And,  what  is  of  not 
less  importance,  the  daily  food  of  extensive  districts 
is  changing.  Improved  means  of  locomotion  are 
bringing  within  the  reach  of  the  consumer,  even 
though  he  may  be  in  the  less  affluent  station  of  life, 
articles  to  which  he  was  formerly  a  stranger. 

Those  improved  means  of  locomotion  likewise  stim 
ulate  all  classes  to  travel.  In  America  a  journey  of 
a  thousand  miles  is  considered,  even  by  the  laboring 
population,  as  a  small  affair  scarce  needing  any  prep 
aration.  The  necessary  result  of  such  personal  mo 
bility  is,  that  families  are  perpetually  changing  their 
places  of  abode.  The  physiological  equilibrium  which 
might  have  been  attained  by  a  more  stationary  life 
is  procrastinated.  Society  presents  the  aspect  of  an 


58  CLIMATE  AND  POLITICAL  STABILITY. 

ever-changing,  ever-struggling  mass — a  state  of  things 
the  very  opposite  to  that  observed  in  Asia. 

Uniformity  of  climate  makes  people  homogeneous. 
They  will  necessarily  think  alike,  and  inevitably  act 
alike. 

Where  variation  in  successive  generations  is  not 
taking  place,  immobility  in  national  institutions  is 
possible. 

The  first  and  most  important  condition  for  the 
prosperity  of  a  great  nation  is  stability  in  its  insti 
tutions. 

But  stability  must  be  carefully  distinguished  from 
immobility.  We  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  affairs 
of  men  are  ever  changing ;  successive  generations  live 
under  essentially  different  conditions;  public  neces 
sities  are  therefore  continually  varying,  and  disorder 
arises  as  soon  as  Institutions  prescribe  one  course  and 
Necessity  demands  another. 

To  insure  stability,  the  political  system  must  there 
fore  admit  of  change — that  change  being  in  accord 
ance  with  a  law  of  variation  which  depends  on  a 
fixed  principle.  Unchangeability  should  belong  to 
the  law,  not  to  the  institutions  issuing  from  it. 

In  that  manner  alone  can  order  and  progress  co 
exist,  and  the  demand  made  by  modern  statesman 
ship  with  so  much  solicitude  be  satisfied.  It  truly 
affirms  that  there  can  be  no  real  Order  without  Prog 
ress,  and  no  real  Progress  without  Order. 


CHANGES  IN  POLITICAL  INSTITUTIONS.  59 

Institutions  well  adapted  for  five  millions  of  peo 
ple  will  certainly  be  very  unsuitable  for  fifty.  Insti 
tutions  intended  for  a  narrow  coast  line  will  certain 
ly  be  inadequate  if  applied  to  one  of  the  quarters  of 
the  globe.  Edifices,  though  they  may  be  built  of 
iron,  will  fall  to  pieces  if  the  architect  has  not  made 
provision  for  expansion  at  one  point  and  contraction 
at  another.  Where  motion  must  in  the  necessities 
of  the  case  occur,  it  is  essential  for  safety  that  there 
should  be  a  harmony  among  the  moving  parts.  In 
equality  of  progressive  movement  implies  strain — 
strain  implies  fracture. 

It  is  therefore  the  province  of  statesmanship  to  de 
termine  how  change  shall  be  provided  for  in  political 
institutions,  and  what  is  the  true  nature  of  the  law 
by  which  they  shall  be  modified.  Above  all,  it  is  its 
province  to  discover  the  immutable  principles  on 
which  that  law  must  rest. 

It.  is  better  for  communities  to  advance  through 
legal  forms  than  by  revolutionary  impulses,  or  by  at 
tempting  to  secure  stability  through  incessantly  fail 
ing  experiments.  The  only  safe  guide  for  them  to 
follow  is  furnished  by  a  careful  investigation  of  the 
circumstances  under  which  their  life  has  been  and  is 
to  be  spent. 

The  life  of  a  feeble  colony  is  simple.  When  it  has 
become  a  widespread  and  powerful  nation,  its  neces 
sities  are  numerous  and  contradictory.  The  chances 


60  NATURE  OF  SOCIAL  PROGRESS. 

that  they  will  be  contradictory  increase  as  the  phys 
ical  circumstances  of  the  country  are  more  diversified. 

Hence  it  is  that  a  nation  lying  east  and  west  will 
generally  have  less  discordant  interests  than  one  the 
range  of  which  is  north  and  south.  Climate  varies 
in  this  latter  case  much  more  than  it  does  in  the 
former. 

Society,  therefore,  pressed  upon  relentlessly  by  Na 
ture,  passes  through  a  definite  series  of  changes.  It 
runs  through  a  predestined  career.  It  is  never  in  a 
state  of  rest,  as  politicians  too  often  suppose,  but  al 
ways  in  motion.  It  has  a  past  from  which  it  is  com 
ing,  a  future  to  which  it  is  going.  It  also  has  'an  un 
avoidable  end. 

A  nation,  as  it  passes  from  phase  to  phase,  is 
guided  by  definite  natural  laws,  and  depends  upon 
definite  conditions.  There  must  be  an  unfailing  sup 
ply  of  new  parts  to  take  the  place  of  the  old  that 
are  being  unceasingly  removed.  There  must  also  be 
a  simultaneous  grouping  or  moulding.  Its  life  is  to 
outlast  by  far  the  life  of  any  of  its  constituent  parts, 
or  even  of  many  generations  of  them.  Its  wants  and 
its  wishes  will  vary  with  circumstances  and  times. 
Half-educated  people  vainly  persuade  themselves,  and 
demagogues  try  to  persuade  others,  that  it  is  possible 
to  devise  a  political  constitution  so  perfect  that  it 
will  never  need  change.  A  constitution  may  be  in 
trinsically  good  in  so  far  as  it  suits  a  present  genera- 


NATURE  OF  SOCIAL  PROGRESS.  61 

tion  and  a  short  time.  But  there  is  goodness  of  a 
higher  order,  depending  on  a  plasticity  that  can 
adapt  itself  to  varying  circumstances  and  stand  the 
shocks  of  Time. 

In  the  popular  view,  a  nation  arises  independently 
of  others.  Without  any  disturbance  it  might  never 
have  existed.  But  nations  should  not  be  regarded 
as  isolated  forms.  They  are,  in  reality,  an  organic  se 
ries  connected  together.  Each  has  bonds  with  those 
that  are  past  and  with  those  that  are  to  come.  In 
its  position  each  is  perfect  in  itself.  It  is  an  incarna 
tion  of  natural  influences  upon  humanity  at  a  given 
epoch.  There  is,  therefore,  a  chain  of  Empires,  whose 
first  link  is  far  back  in  the  darkness  of  pre-historic 
times. 

Such  an  interconnected  succession  implies  cause 
and  effect — the  steady  dominion  of  natural  law.  It 
means  the  continuous  advancement  of  humanity. 

From  infancy  man  slowly  emerges  into  childhood, 
from  that  into  youth,  from  that  to  maturity.  Each 
of  these  stages  brings  with  it  changes  of  character, 
making  him  feel  differently  and  think  differently. 
In  that  resistless  development  have  we  any  volun 
tary  concern  ?  Could  we  have  arrested  its  march  by 
any  desire,  or  could  we  have  diverted  its  course  ? 
We  have  made  the  same  passage  that  has  fallen  to 
the  lot  of  eveiy  human  being,  and  as  for  our  prede 
cessors,  so  for  us,  there  awaits  us  the  unpitying 


(52  COMPARATIVE  HISTORY. 

grave.  We  came  into  the  world  without  our  own 
knowledge,  we  are  departing  from  it  against  our  own 
will. 

In  that  great  branch 'of  literature  of  which  we  now 
only  see  the  dim  beginning — Comparative  History— 
the  series  of  Nations,  viewed  by  the  light  of  individ 
ual  life,  will  be  hereafter  considered.  Nations  will 
be  regarded  not  as  mere  accidents,  or  creative  blun 
ders,  or  experimental  attempts,  but  as  emerging  from 
the  bosom  of  humanity  through  predetermining 
causes.  It  will  treat  of  their  march  of  development, 
showing  why  one  has  been  arrested  at  an  early  stage 
in  its  life,  another  has  advanced  more  completely  to 
maturity,  another  has  expended  its  vital  powers,  and 
died,  as  it  were,  of  old  age.  It  will  show  that  there 
is  a  general  equation  of  National  life,  and  that  special 
nations  are  special  solutions  of  it.  It  will  prove  that 
nations  are  not  individuals,  but  only  forms  into 
which  humanity  is  thrown — mere  transitory  combi 
nations,  of  which  the  inevitable  issue  is  dissolution, 
death.  For  the  constituent  men  of  whom  they  were 
composed  there  may  be  an  immortality,  but  that  does 
not  imply  immortality  for  the  resulting  form.  The 
material  particles  of  which  the  flame  of  a  lamp  is 
composed  we  know  are  indestructible,  eternal,  but 
who  shall  say  whither  that  flame  has  gone  when 
once  blown  out ! 


ILLUSTRATION  FROM  EGYPTIAN  HISTORY.  63 

Perhaps  I  can  not  more  impressively  enforce  the 
principles  that  have  been  explained  on  the  foregoing 
pages,  particularly  those  that  assert  the  control  of 
Climate  over  the  actions  of  man,  than  by  presenting 
one  or  two  historical  reminiscences.  From  many  in 
stances,  I  select  the  cases  of  Egypt  and  of  Asia. 

European  civilization  originated  in  Egypt.  For 
thirty-four  centuries  before  our  era  that  country  was 
governed  by  dynasties  of  kings  succeeding  each  other 
without  interruption.  Its  soil,  proverbially  fertile, 
sustained  a  population  estimated  in  the  most  prosper 
ous  times  at  about  seven  millions ;  and  repeated  mil 
itary  expeditions  into  Asia  and  Ethiopia  had,  in  the 
course  of  ages,  concentrated  in  it  immense  wealth, 
and  crowded  with  captives  .and  slaves  the  valley  of 
the  Nile. 

Until  about  seven  hundred  years  before  Christ  the 
inhabitants  of  that  country  had  been  shut  out  from 
all  Mediterranean  or  European  contact  by  a  rigorous 
exclusion  exceeding  that  until  recently  practiced  in 
China  and  Japan.  As  from  the  inmates  of  "The 
Happy  Valley1'  in  Rasselas  no  tidings  escaped  into 
the  outer  world,  so  to  the  European  the  Valley  of 
the  Mle  was  a  region  of  mysteries  and  marvels. 
Uncertain  legends  were  current  all  over  Asia  Mi 
nor,  Greece,  Italy,  Sicily,  of  the  prodigies  and  mira 
cles  that  adventurous  pirates  reported  they  had  ac 
tually  seen  in  their  stealthy  visits  to  the  enchanted 


64  ILLUSTRATION  FROM  EGYPTIAN  HISTORY. 

valley — great  pyramids  covering  acres  of  land,  their 
tops  rising  to  the  heavens,  yet  each  pyramid  nothing 
more  than  the  tombstone  of  a  king — Colossi  sitting 
on  granite  thrones,  the  images  of  Pharaohs  who  had 
lived  in  the  morning  of  the  world,  still  silently  look 
ing  upon  the  land  which  thousands  of  years  before 
they  had  ruled ;  of  these,  some,  obedient  to  the  Sun, 
saluted  his  approach  w^hen  touched  by  his  morning 
rays  —  Obelisks  of  prodigious  height,  carved  by  su 
perhuman  skill  from  a  single  block  of  stone,  and 
raised  by  superhuman  power  erect  on  their  everlast 
ing  pedestals,  their  faces  covered  with  mysterious 
hieroglyphics,  a  language  unknown  to  the  vulgar, 
telling  by  whom  and  for  what  they  had  been  con 
structed — Temples,  the  massive  leaning  and  lower 
ing  walls  of  which  were  supported  by  countless 
ranges  of  statues — avenues  of  Sphinxes,  through  the 
shadows  of  which,  grim  and  silent,  the  portals  of 
fanes  might  be  approached — Catacombs  containing 
the  mortal  remains  of  many  generations,  each  corpse 
awaiting  in  mysterious  embalmment  a  future  life — 
Labyrinths  of  many  hundred  chambers  and  vaults, 
into  which  whoso  entered  without  a  clew  never  again 
escaped,  but  in  the  sameness  and  silence  of  those  end 
less  windings  found  his  sepulchre. 

In  the  security  of  this  inaccessible  retreat,  and 
under  political  institutions  of  a  favorable  character, 
the  civilization  which  was  to  be  conferred,  through 


ILLUSTRATION  FROM  EGYPTIAN  HISTORY.  (55 

Greece  on  Europe  originated.  Each  year  since  the 
country  has  been  open  to  investigation  and  its  hiero 
glyphic  system  understood,  the  impressions  we  re 
ceive  of  its  intellectual  advancement  have  been  more 
and  more  favorable.  The  vocal  statue  of  Mernnon 
at  Thebes,  it  is  said,  emitted  a  musical  sound  when 
touched  by  the  rays  of  the  sun.  In  the  light  of  mod 
ern  criticism,  every  obelisk  and  monument  of  those 
desolated  palaces  is  finding  a  voice. 

As  a  critical  attention  is  bestowed  by  modern 
scholars  upon  Egyptian  remains,  we  learn  more  truly 
what  is  the  place  in  history  of  that  venerable  coun 
try.  From  Egypt,  it  now  appears,  were  derived  the 
prototypes  of  the  Greek  architectural  orders,  and 
even  their  ornaments  and  conventional  designs ; 
thence  came  the  models  of  the  Greek  and  Etruscan 
vases;  thence  many  of  the  ante -Homeric  legends— 
the  'accusation  of  the  dead,  the  trial  before  the  judges 
of  Hell,  the  reward  and  punishment  of  every  man, 
the  dog  Cerberus,  the  Stygian  stream,  the  lake  of  ob 
livion,  the  piece  of  money,  Charon  and  his  boat,  the 
fields  of  Elysium,  the  islands  of  the  blessed.  Thence 
came  the  first  ritual  for  the  dead,  litanies  to  the  Sun, 
and  painted  or  illuminated  missals ;  thence  came  the 
dogma  of  a  queen  of  heaven.  What  other  countiy 
ever  offered  such  noble  and  enduring  edifices  to  the 
gods? — temples  with  avenues  of  sphinxes — massive 
pylons  adorned  with  obelisks  in  front,  which  even 

E 


66  ILLUSTRATION  FROM  EGYPTIAN  HISTORY. 

imperial  Rome  and  modern  Paris  have  not  thought  it 
beneath  them  to  appropriate — porticoes  and  halls  of 
columns  on  which  were  carved  the  portraits  of  kings 
and  the  effigies  of  gods.  The  Pyramids  have  seen 
the  Old  Empire,  the  Hyksos  monarchs,  the  New  Em 
pire,  the  Persian,  the  Macedonian,  the  Roman,  the 
Mohammedan.  They  have  stood  still,  while  heaven 
itself  has  changed.  They  were  already  five  hundred 
years  old  when  the  Southern  Cross  disappeared  from 
the  horizon  of  the  countries  of  the  Baltic.  The  Pole 
Star  itself  is  a  new  comer  to  them.  Another  and  a 
more  brilliant*  star,  now  far  removed,  then  occupied 
that  conspicuous  place. 

What  was  it  that  thus  placed  Egypt  in  the  van 
of  our  civilization,  and  gave  her  the  precedence  of 
Europe  ? 

The  progress  of  human  generations  is  shaped  by 
the  physical  circumstances  in  which  they  live. 

The  Nile,  the  mysterious  river  of  antiquity — myste 
rious  now  no  more — takes  a  northerly  direction  from 
equatorial  Africa  through  a  valley,  overflowing  its 
banks  once  each  year,  spreading  a  fertile  mud  to  the 
edge  of  the  sandy  desert,  and  encroaching  perpetual 
ly  on  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  All  Lower  Egypt  has 
been  made  by  it.  The  arable  strand  thus  formed  va 
ries  in  width  from  two  to  about  eleven  miles. 

In  one  all-important  particular  Egypt  differed  from 
most  other  places — the  agricultural  result  of  its  sea 


PERMANENCE  OF  EGYPT.  ^7 

sons  could  be  foretold.  Elsewhere  men  depend  for 
the  fruits  of  the  earth  on  uncertain  rains,  in  Egypt 
they  depended  on  the  inundations.  If  in  the  month 
of  July  the  water  has  only  risen  twelve  feet,  it  is 
known  that  the  harvests  will  be  scanty ;  if  to  twenty- 
one  feet,  that  they  will  be  plentiful.  A  system  of 
reservoirs  and  dikes,  floodgates  and  other  hydraulic 
apparatus,  had  been  contrived  in  the  remotest  times. 
The  government  took  charge  of  the  river,  delivering 
water  from  it  in  a  regulated  manner,  and  remunera 
ting  itself  by  a  tax. 

Agriculture  thus  became  a  reliable  art.  The  peo 
ple  were  relieved  from  the  uncertainties  of  the  future. 
The  river  was  to  them  all  a  common  interest,  a  com 
mon  bond  of  union.  Where  there  is  a  bond  like 
that,  its  political  consequences  can  hardly  be  exagger 
ated.  Moreover,  the  climate  throughout  the  whole 
of  Egypt  proper  was  very  uniform. 

The  remark  has  already  been  made  OB  a  previous 
page  that  uniformity  of  Climate  makes  people  homo 
geneous.  They  will  necessarily  think  alike,  and  in 
evitably  act  alike. 

Here,  then,  was  a  people  having  common  ideas  and 
common  intentions.  Its  consolidation  and  civiliza 
tion  were  assured.  A  Colossus  with  its  hands  rest 
ing  upon  its  knees  typified  what  the  nation  really 
was.  Every  thing  seemed  eternal,  no  change  proba 
ble,  no  catastrophe  possiblee 


(58  IMMOBILITY  OF  EGYPT. 

It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that  the  two  great  divis 
ions  of  the  country — Upper  and  Lower  Egypt — be 
came  consolidated  at  an  early  epoch,  and  in  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  prosperity  and  adversity  were,  never 
subsequently  separated. 

In  this  invariable  climate,  held  together  by  a  com 
mon  interest  and  a  common  bond,  generations  of 
Egyptians  for  forty  centuries  and  more  succeeded 
one  another.  Each  one  was  like  all  its  predeces 
sors.  There  was  nothing  to  produce  modification. 
The  mould  into  which  Nature  poured  her  living  ma 
terial  underwent  no  kind  of  change.  The  casts  that 
she  procured  were  all  alike. 

Egypt  is  therefore  an  exemplification  of  the  gen 
eral  principle  that  where  variation  in  successive  gen 
erations  is  not  taking  place,  immobility  in  national 
institutions  is  possible. 

Of  Asia  it  has  long  been  remarked  that  it  is  a 
continent  Without  any  temperate  zone.  The  vast 
mountain  axis  which  in  an  irregular  manner  divides 
it,  throws  it  into  two  slopes,  one  looking  to  the  north, 
the  other  to  the  south.  Apart,  however,  from  this, 
which  undoubtedly  impresses  a  general  feature  of 
violent  contrast  on  its  meteorology,  its  local  variations 
are  such  as  to  give  rise  to  many  diversities  of  climate, 
marked  in  a  sufficiently  distinct  manner,  though  not 
so  abrupt  or  so  frequent  as  is  the  case  in  Europe.  It 


ILLUSTRATION  FROM  THE  HISTORY  OF  ASIA.  69 

necessarily,  therefore,  presents  numerous  examples  of 
distinctly  modified  men.  • 

Receiving  its  human  population  at  an  epoch  ante 
rior  to  that  of  the  peopling  of  Europe,  Asia  has  al 
ways  been  regarded  as  the  birthplace  of  man.  On 
a  previous  page  has  been  given  a  portion  of  that 
large  body  of  evidence  accumulated  by  Comparative 
Philologists  in  proof  of  the  fact  that  the  present  in 
habitants  of  Europe  are  of  Oriental  descent. 

The  activity  that  must  have  existed  in  its  early 
history,  when  from  one,  or  at  the  most  a  few  centres, 
its  teeming  population  was  rapidly  spreading  in  ev 
ery  direction,  and  accomplishing  the  settlement  of  its 
various  districts,  has  long  ago  given  place  to  stagna 
tion.  At  intervals  centuries  apart  there  have  poured 
from  it  devastating  hordes  that  have  precipitated 
themselves  on  Europe.  These  have  commonly  melt 
ed  away  in  the  populations  they  overran,  and  have 
scarcely  left  any  trace  of  their  existence  in  the  coun 
tries  from  which  they  emerged. 

In  some  instances  such  warlike  emigrating  columns 
have  been  set  in  motion  by  military  chieftains  or  by 
internal  civil  commotions ;  but  not  unfrequently  they 
have  originated,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe,  in 
the  consequences  of  those  geological  changes  to  which 
the  Eastern  Continent  is  subject — changes  which  di 
vert  the  courses  of  rivers  and  modify  the  lines  of 
travel.  On  the  nomadic  population  of  the  northern 


70  STAGNANT  CONDITION  OF  ASIA. 

slope  such  effects  are  widespread  disasters,  compel 
ling  the  tribes  into  a  forced  emigration  down  the 
gentle  incline — the  path  zone — that  leads  out  of  Asia 
into  Europe. 

Exception  made  of  these  convulsive  social  move 
ments,  the  entire  population  of  that  continent  is  in  a 
stagnant  condition.  There  is  nothing  to  excite  loco 
motion.  At  the  best,  the  numberless  states  and 
forms  of  government  existing,  restrict  intercommuni 
cation  within  very  narrow  bounds.  Over  vast  tracts 
of  country  the  traveler  can  not  pass  without  risk  of 
liberty  or  life.  So  many  different  languages,  so  many 
different  chieftains,  present  insuperable  obstacles  to 
movement. 

The  influence  of  religious  opinions  also  exerts  a 
powerful  effect.  Among  many  millions  it  is  thought 
unholy  to  go  to  sea.  The  lines  of  journey,  such  as 
they  are,  remain  unaltered  and  unimproved  fo?  suc 
cessive  centuries — unaltered  unless  by  the  movements 
or  acts  of  Nature.  The  venerable  caravanserai  re 
ceives  its  evening  travelers  just  as  it  did  centuries 
ago.  The  patient  camel  on  the  southwestern  slope, 
and  the  rude  wagon  on  the  northern,  pursue  their 
wearisome  courses  just  as  they  did  in  the  days  of 
Alexander. 

It  may  therefore  be  said  that  the  Asiatic  popula 
tions  have  truly  lost  locomotion — they  have  become 
stationary,  vast  multitudes  during  their  whole  lives 


CAUSE  OF  THAT  CONDITION.  71 

scarcely  leaving  the  places  where  they  were  born. 
Successive  ages  have  left  an  indelible  impression. 
In  all  directions,  the  people  have  come  into  physio 
logical  correspondence  with  the  natural  conditions  in 
which  they  are  living.  In  this  perfect  correspond 
ence  lies  the  secret  of  their  stagnant  state. 

Stagnant  it  emphatically  is !  There  are  no  changes 
in  the  fashions  of  clothing,  no  improvements  in  the 
habitations,  no  bettering  of  food.  As  their  ancestors 
in  past  times  lived,  so  do  they.  Oppression  may 
have  .sometimes  driven  them  to  revolt,  the  intrigues 
of  leading  men  may  have  sometimes  plunged  them 
into  war,  but  it  never  occurs  to  them  to  modify  the 
political  system  under  which  they  may  happen  to 
live,  any  more  than  it  occurs  to  bees  to  change  the 
economy  of  their  hive.  The  utmost  they  ever  accom 
plish  is  to  exchange  their  tyrant.  They  do  not  seek 
to  get  rid  of  the  tyranny.  In  Asia  the  sense  of  po 
litical  improvement  is  lost.  Crushed  by  the  relent 
less  tread  of  centuries,  they  can  only  appreciate  tran 
quillity  and  rest.  Without  a  murmur  or  even  a  wish, 
they  leave  Europe  to  seek  and  sigh  for  freedom. 

To  this  correspondence  which  the  lapse  of  time  has 
accomplished  between  their  physiological  condition 
and  the  theatre  of  their  life,  we  must  attribute  that 
propensity  to  religious  aspirations  which  has  for  so 
long  marked  their  character,  and  which  has  so  pro 
foundly  impressed  all  other  portions  of  the  world. 


72  ANCIENT  ACTIVITY  OF  ASIA. 

Buddhism,  Mohammedanism,  Judaism,  the  religious 
faiths  of  nearly  eight  hundred  millions  of  men^  are 
all  of  Asiatic  origin.  Moreover,  it  must  not  be  for 
gotten  that  Palestine  was  the  birthplace  of  Christian 
ity.  The  irrepressible  tendency  of  Europe  is  to  phi 
losophy,  that  of  Asia  is  to  religion.  The  former 
looks  forth  on  the  exterior  world,  investigating  the 
eYents  of  Nature,  and  profiting  by  the  application  of 
the  discoveries  it  makes.  The  latter  looks  inwardly 
upon  itself.  Motionless,  like  its  own  Fakirs,  it  is  ab 
sorbed  in  self -contemplation,  and  has  fallen  into  a 
trance. 

It  was  not,  however,  always  thus  in  the  East.  In 
times  of  which  History  has  failed  to  preserve  any  ac 
count,  that  continent  must  have  been  the  scene  of 
prodigious  human  activity.  In  it  were  first  devel 
oped  those  fundamental  inventions  and  discoveries 
which  really  lie  at  the  basis  of  the  progress  of  the 
human  race — the  subjugation  of  domestic  animals, 
the  management  of  fire,  the  expression  of  thought  by 
writing.  We  are  apt  to  overlook  how  much  man 
must  have  done,  how  much  he  must  have  added  to 
his  natural  powers  in  pre-historic  times.  We  forget 
how  many  contributions  to  our  own  comforts  are  of 
Oriental  origin.  Their  commonness  hides  them  from 
our  view.  If  the  European  wishes  to  know  how 
much  he  owes  to  the  Asiatic,  he  has  only  to  cast  a 
glance  at  an  hour  of  his  daily  life.  The  clock  which 


OBLIGATIONS  OF  EUROPE  TO  ASIA.  73 

summons  him  from  his  bed  in  the  morning  was  the 
invention  of  the  East,  as  also  were  clepsydras  and 
sun-dials.  The  prayer  for  his  daily  bread,  that  he  has 
said  from  his  infancy,  first  rose  from  the  side  of  a 
Syrian  mountain.  The  linens  and  cottons  with  which 
he  clothes  himself,  though  they  may  be  very  fine,  are 
inferior  to  those  that  have  been  made  for  time  imme 
morial  in  the  looms  of  India.  The  silk  was  stolen 
by  some  missionaries  for  his  benefit  from  China.  He 
could  buy  better  steel  than  that  with  which  he 
shaves  himself  in  the  old  city  of  Damascus,  where  it 
was  first  invented.  The  coffee  he  expects  at  break 
fast  was  first  grown  by  the  Arabians,  and  the  na 
tives  of  Upper  India  prepared  the  sugar  with  which 
he  sweetens  it.  A  school -boy  can  tell  the  mean 
ing  of  the  Sanscrit  words  sacchara  canda.  If  his 
tastes  are  light  and  he  prefers  tea,  the  virtues  of 
that  excellent  leaf  were  first  pointed  out  by  the  in 
dustrious  Chinese.  They  also  taught  him  how  to 
make  and  use  the  cup  and  saucer  in  which  to  serve 
it.  His  breakfast  tray  was  lacquered  in  Japan. 
There  is  a  tradition  that  leavened  bread  was  first 
made  of  the  waters  of  the  Ganges.  The  egg  he  is 
breaking  was  laid  by  a  fowl  whose  ancestors  were 
first  domesticated  by  the  Malaccans,  unless  she  may 
have  been — though  that  will  not  alter  the  case — a 
modern  Shanghai.  If  there  are  preserves  and  fruits 
on  his  board,  let  him  remember  with  thankfulness 


74  OBLIGATIONS  OF  EUROPE  TO  ASIA. 

that  Persia  first  gave  him  the  Cherry,  the  Peach,  the 
Plum.  If  in  any  of  these  pleasant  preparations  he 
detects  the  flavor  of  alcohol,  let  it  remind  him  that 
that  substance  was  first  distilled  by  the  Arabians, 
who  have  set  him  the  praiseworthy  example,  which 
it  will  be  for  his  benefit  to  follow,  of  abstaining  from 
its  use.  When  he  talks  about  coffee  and  alcohol,  he 
is  using  Arabic  words.  A  thousand  years  before  it 
had  occurred  to  him  to  enact  laws  of  restriction  in 
the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks,  the  Prophet  of  Mecca 
did  the  same  thing,  and,  what  is  more  to  the  purpose, 
has  compelled  to  this  day  all  Asia  and  Africa  to 
obey  them.  We  gratify  our  taste  for  personal  orna 
ments  in  the  way  the  Orientals  have  taught  us — with 
pearls,  rubies,  sapphires,  diamonds.  Of  public  amuse 
ments  it  is  the  same.  The  most  magnificent  fireworks 
are  still  to  be  seen  in  India  and  China;  and  as  re 
gards  the  pastimes  of  private  life,  Europe  has  pro 
duced  no  invention  that  can  rival  the  game  of  Chess. 
We  have  no  hydraulic  constructions  as  great  as  the 
Chinese  Canal,  no  fortifications  as  extensive  as  the 
Chinese  Wall ;  we  have  no  Artesian  wells  that  can  at 
all  approach  in  depth  some  of  theirs.  We  have  not 
yet  resorted  to  the  practice  of  obtaining  coal  gas  from 
the  interior  of  the  earth ;  they  have  borings  for  that 
purpose  more  than  3000  feet  deep. 

Through  the  long -continued  influence  of  Climate 
action  a  different  mental  constitution  has  been  im- 


THE  EUROPEAN  AND  THE  ASIATIC.  75 

parted  to  the  inhabitants  of  Europe  and  of  Asia. 
The  mind  of  the  latter  has  become  essentially  syn 
thetic,  that  of  the  former  analytic.  The  Asiatic  is 
the  creator  of  systems  of  Theology,  Law,  Philosophy, 
some  of  which  have  endured  for  thousands  of  years, 
and  have  been  adopted  by  a  large  portion  of  the  hu 
man  race.  The  European  pursues  his  course  in  a 
way  less  grand,  but  which,  since  it  has  a  better  ascer 
tained  foundation,  leads  to  more  certain,  and,  as  the 
course  of  centuries  will  show,  more  powerful,  wide 
spread,  and  equally  lasting  results.  In  Asia,  as  we 
have  seen,  customs  and  fashions  remain  invariable ; 
every  thing  is  in  a  state,  as  we  term  it,  of  stagnation, 
or,  as  they  consider  it,  of  repose.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  analytical  tendency  of  the  European  has  led  to 
the  intellectual  and  political  anarchy  of  our  times, 
when  fundamental  doctrines  of  every  kind  are  called 
in  question,  and  scarcely  two  men  can  be  found 
whose  "views  on  religious,  political,  and  social  ques 
tions  coincide.  In  Asia  there  are  no  questions,  only 
affirmations.  Europe,  except  when  the  Church  for  a 
thousand  years  enforced  the  Asiatic  system,  has  ever 
been  prone  to  ask  questions.  Since  the  fourteenth 
century,  when  she  returned  to  that  propensity,  she 
has  been  passing  through  a  chaos  of  doubt  in  the  in 
numerable  answers  she  receives. 

I  trace,  therefore,  the   stagnant   condition  of  the 
Asiatic  populations  to  that  correspondence  into  which 


76  THE  POLITICAL  STATE  OF  ASIA. 

they  have  slowly  been  brought  with  the  physical  cir 
cumstances  in  which  they  live.  They  have  come  into 
a  condition  of  physiological  repose.  The  consequence 
is,  that  they  have  come  into  a  condition  of  political 
repose  also.  Barriers  not  only  of  a  material,  but  of 
an  intellectual  kind,  the  consequences  of  those  events, 
are  now  fettering  them,  cramping  them.  They  are 
held  in  the  iron  grasp  of  a  hundred  tyrannies,  and, 
what  is  indeed  more  effectual,  are  parted  from  one 
another  by  many  different  tongues. 

The  consequence  of  this  physiological  correspond 
ence  has  been  the  permanent  establishment  of  the  va 
rious  governments  that  divide  the  continent.  These 
may  from  time  to  time  suffer  interior  change  through 
civil  commotions  or  mutual  war,  but  the  aspect  of 
Oriental  life  has  remained  unaltered  for  several  thou 
sand  years.  The  many  National  forms  that  have 
sprung  into  existence  tend  to  aid  Climate  in  its  influ 
ence  and  perpetuate  a  common  effect.  From  being 
originally  consequences,  they  have  assumed  the  atti 
tude  of  causes. 

And  yet  it  is  not  beyond  the  bounds  of  possibility 
that  this  deplorable  state  of  things  should  change, 
and,  those  old,  worn  -  out  populations  disappearing, 
races  of  new-comers  take  their  place — new-comers 
arising,  perhaps,  in  large  part  from  the  intermixture 
of  people  who,  not  having  that  physiological  corre 
spondence  with  the  countries  in  which  they  were 


PROSPECTIVE  CHANGES  IN  ASIA.  77 

thrown,  could  renew  tie  scene  of  struggle,  the  scene 
of  activity  again.  Asia  has  given  to  Europe  its  relig 
ion.  Europe  may  hereafter  repay  the  debt  by  giving 
to  Asia  her  improved  means  of  locomotion.  Once 
let  those  torpid  communities  be  set  in  movement, 
once  mix  them  up  again  by  travel,  by  commerce,  and, 
by  their  consequence,  intermarriage,  and  the  aspect 
of  things  would,  quickly  change.  In  Europe  itself, 
the  rapid  modes  of  locomotion — inappreciably  valu 
able  inventions  of  our  age— are  inciting  an  impend 
ing  revolution.  They  extend  the  sphere  of  individual 
life;  bring  diverse  populations,  that  misinterpreted 
and  misunderstood  one  another,  face  to  face ;  remove 
national  prejudices ;  refine  the  public  manners ;  and 
elevate  the  public  mind.  Asia,  the  land  of  miracles, 
may  yet  be  destined  to  exhibit  the  greatest  of  polit 
ical  wonders.  Interior  motion  may  revolutionize  that 
continent. 

Turning  from  these  special  cases,  to  which  many 
others  might  be  added  if  there  were  occasion,  I  shall 
now  endeavor  to  bring  plainly  into  relief  the  facts 
that  have  been  considered  in  the  preceding  pages. 
What  is  it  they  amount  to?  This — that  the  body 
of  man  can  not  resist  external  influences.  It  is  help 
lessly  modified  by  heat  and  cold,  dryness,  moisture— 
that  is,  by  Climate.  The  complexion  of  the  skin 
changes,  as  also  does  the  construction  of  the  brain. 


78  EFFECTS  OF  CLIMATE  IN  AMERICA. 

In  a  restricted  locality  there  may  therefore  be  a  same 
ness  in  the  population;  but  in  a  vast  continent,  where 
there  are  all  kinds  of  climate,  there  will  inevitably  be 
all  kinds  of  modified  men.  Their  thoughts  and  their 
actions  must  necessarily  be  diverse.  To  unite  them 
under  one  government  becomes,  then,  proportionably 
more  and  more  difficult.  But  now,  if  there  be  a  point 
on  which  America  as  a  nation  has  come  to  an  irrevo 
cable  resolve,  it  is  that  one  government  alone  shall 
hold  sway  on  this  continent.  Then  let  us  look  the 
physical  difficulty  plainly  in  the  face.  Though  for 
midable,  it  is  not  insuperable. 

Look  at  that  zone  of  American  population  inhabit 
ing  the  countries  in  which  the  cotton-plant  can  grow. 
Does  not  the  luxuriance  of  that  delicate  product,  that 
so  quickly  suffers  on  the  approach  of  cold,  imply  a 
homogeneous  climate  ?  Is  it  surprising  that  there 
should  be  a  mental  sameness,  a  concordance  -  among 
the  inhabitants  in  their  manner  of  thinking?  We 
have  seen  that  a  common  climate  makes  men  think 
alike  and  act  alike. 

Turn  now  to  that  other  zone,  stretching  from  the 
Atlantic  westwardly  in  the  direction  of  the  great 
lakes.  Here  there  is  none  of  that  climate  homoge- 
neousness  occurring  in  the  other  case.  Even  before 
the  region  of  the  lakes  is  fairly  reached,  four  distinct 
strands  of  different  temperature  have  been  passed 
through.  Follow  that  zone  with  a  prophetic  eye,  as 


EFFECTS  OF  CLIMATE  IN  AMERICA.        79 

it  becomes  peopled  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
and  tell  me,  as  those  busy  hordes  extend  over  the 
vast  sandy  desert,  climb  up  the  threatening  ridges  of 
the  mountain  chains,  descend  through  the  moaning 
forests  of  enormous  pines  beyond,  how  many  are  the 
vicissitudes  through  which  life  must  be  maintained, 
and  I  will  tell  you  how  many  distinct  families  of  men 
there  must  be. 

We  must  steadily  bear  in  mind  the  principle  that 
has  forced  itself  so  strongly  on  our  attention.  Scientif 
ic  Physiology  has  no  better  ascertained  fact  than  that 
man  possesses  no  innate  resistance  to  change.  The 
moment  he  leaves  his  accustomed  place  of  abode  to 
encounter  new  physical  conditions  and  altered  modes 
of  life,  that  moment  his  structure  commences  slowly 
to  change.  It  may  take  several  generations  before 
an  equilibrium  is  reached.  Then  his  countenance,  his 
complexion,  his  hair,  testify  to  what  has  been  going 
on. 

Public  policy  should  therefore  hold  these  great 
facts  steadily  in  view,  and  shape  its  course  accord 
ingly.  It  should  not  only  discern  herein  the  hidden 
causes  of  those  dreadful  events  through  which,  as  a 
Nation,  we  are  passing,  it  should  also  foresee  that  this 
is  the  rugged  path  through  which,  in  the  future,  des 
tiny  leads  us.  To  the  innate  sympathies  and  antip 
athies  thus  engendered  the  demagogue  will  in  all  fu 
ture  time  appeal.  As  they  have  done  in  our  day,  so 


80  EFFECTS  OF  CLIMATE  IN  AMERICA. 

will  they  ever  hereafter  constitute  an  instrument  apt 
for  Ms  purpose.  We  have  been  called  upon  to  deal 
with  the  variations  as  they  now  exist,  our  descend 
ants  will  have  to  deal  with  the  greater  variations 
coming.  No  European  nation  can  serve  us  as  an 
exemplar,  for  none  has  encountered  a  problem  so 
complicated  and  vast.  The  nearest  approach  to  its 
solution  was  made  by  the  Roman  Empire,  but  that 
lay,  for  the  most  part,  in  an  easterly  and  westerly  di 
rection,  in  which  the  wants  and  intentions  of  men 
were  very  much  the  same.  That  imperial  system 
was  intrinsically  unable  to  extend  itself  north  and 
south.  Had  it  made  such  an  extension,  the  difficulty 
of  its  government  wrould  have  been  far  greater  than 
it  was.  Whoever  will  study  its  disintegration  and 
disruption  will  see  how  true  these  principles  are. 

And  here  I  can  not  help  making  the  remark,  that 
whoever  accepts  these  principles  as  true,  and  bears  in 
mind  how  physical  circumstances  control  the  deeds 
of  men,  as  it  may  be  said,  in  spite  of  themselves,  will 
have  a  disposition  to  look  with  generosity  on  the 
acts  of  political  enemies.  Even  when  in  madness 
they  have  rushed  to  the  dread  arbitrament  of  civil 
war — a  crime  in  the  face  of  which  all  other  crimers 
are  as  nothing — and  brought  upon  their  country  im 
measurable  woes,  he  will  distinguish  the  instrument 
from  the  cause,  and,  when  he  has  overpowered,  will 
forgive. 


UNION  IN  EUROPE.  81 

Philosophy  alone  can  raise  man  to  that  grand  ele 
vation  which  enables  him  to  perform  acts  that  cen 
turies  will  admire.  Philosophy  alone  can  place  him 

"Above  all  pain,  all  passion,  and  all  pride, 
Above^the  reach  of  flattery's  baleful  breath, 
The  lust  of  lucre,  and  the  dread  of  death." 

There  are  things  that  no  human  legislation  can  ac 
complish.  Perhaps  he  who  considers  the  supreme 
difficulties  incident  to  our  political  position  may  look 
at  the  picture  almost  in  despair,  and  come  to  the  con 
clusion  that  in  such  a  case  no  human  statesmanship 
can  avail. 

But  let  us  take  courage.  Once  in  the  history  of 
the  world  has  a  parallel  attempt  at  the  union  of  a 
continent  been  made.  In  the  eleventh  century  was 
born  a  great  man,  who  resolved  to  convert  all  Eu 
rope  into  one  federation,  with  the  Sovereign  Pontiff 
at  its  head,  and  Emperors  and  Kings  his  proconsuls 
—that  Europe  which,  as  we  have  seen,  presents  all 
sorts,  of  climates  and  all  kinds  of  modified  men.  A 
religious  foundation  was,  under  the  circumstances, 
the  only  one  that  could  be  given  to  the  contemplated 
structure  ;*  but  Gregory  VII.  saw  not  only  its  capa 
bilities,  but  its  defects,  as  any  one  may  find  who  will 
consider  his  relations  with  the  heretic  Berengar. 
Those  defects  he  would  have  remedied  if  he  could, 
and  brought  that  foundation  into  more  complete  ac 
cordance  with  human  reason. 

F 


82  UNION  IN  AMERICA. 

What  was  the  practical  instrument  on  which  Greg 
ory  VII.  relied  in  carrying  out  his  intention?  His 
legates  could  pass  from  Scotland  to  Spain,  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  confines  of  Asia,  and  meet  in  every 
monastery  and  at  every  church  men,  speaking  the 
same  tongue.  The  Latin  language  gave  him  intelli 
gent  allies  all  over  Christendom,  but  allies  only 
among  the  men  of  education.  With  us,  how  much 
better  is  the  prospect — one  language  from  ocean  to 
ocean,  and  that  among  the  lowly  as  well  as  the  high. 
That  bond  of  union  is  for  us  a  bond  of  strength.  It 
aids  in  compensating  for  diversities  of  climate.  It 
gives  us  a  common  history  of  the  past,  a  common 
hope  for  the  future.  Conterminous  groups  of  men 
are  far  more  effectually  isolated  by  different  forms  of 
speech  than  by  intervening  rivers  and  mountains,  but 
groups  that  are  far  apart  may  be  in  communion 
through  a  common  tongue.  They  may  learn  to  have 
faith  in  the  greatness  and  permanence  of  their  polit 
ical  creations,  and  in  unbroken  unity  discern  uncon 
querable  power. 

With  such  an  inappreciable  advantage  in  our  fa 
vor,  we  are  encouraged  to  look  again  at  the  great 
problem  before  us,  and  to  ask,  Can  we  not  neutralize 
those  climate  differences,  which,  if  unchecked,  must 
transmute  us  into  different  nations  ? 

In  two  words,  I  think,  we  find  an  answer — Educa 
tion  and  Intercommunication.  Nor  is  this  the  sug- 


EDUCATION.  83 

gestion  of  mere  theorists.  Under  that  formula  four 
hundred  millions  of  men — one  third  of  the  human 
race — have  found  stability  for  their  institutions  in 
China.  By  their  public  school  system  they  have  or 
ganized  their  national  intellect;  by  their  canal  sys 
tem  they  have  made  themselves,  though  living  in  a 
climate'  as  diversified  as  ours,  essentially  one  people. 
The  principle  on  which  their  political  system  is  thus 
founded  has  for  many  thousand  years  confronted  suc 
cessfully  all  human  variations,  and  has  outlived  all 
revolutions.  But  what  is  their  public  education 
compared  with  what  ours  might  be  ?  what  is  their 
canal  system  compared  with  what  our  railroads  will 
become  ? 

Of  education  I  shall  have  nothing  more  to  say,  for 
all  intelligent  persons  concur  in  the  belief  that  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  to.  the  perpetuity  of  the  Ameri 
can  system.  The  public  value  of  locomotion  is  by  no 
means  so  well  understood.  While  legislation  has  in 
all  directions  been  brought  to  bear  on  the  protection, 
encouragement,  development  of  the  former ;  the  lat 
ter,  it  may  be  said,  has  been  altogether  neglected  in  a 
national  point  of  view. 

Talleyrand,  when  speaking  of  the  United  States  to 
the  Emperor  Napoleon,  made  this  remark :  "  It  is  a 
giant  without  bones."  That  wras  before  there  were 
any  railroads ;  but  since  his  day  the  bones  have  be 
gun  to  grow,  and  they  are  bones  of  iron. 


84  LOCOMOTION. 

Now,  since  there  is  an  unceasing  tendency  to  the 
modification  of  the  human  system  by  the  operation 
of  climate,  and  evils  ensue  both  by  a  community 
coming  into  repose,  which  is  politically  falling  into 
a  stagnant  condition,  and  by  the  antagonisms  that 
arise  between  conterminous  communities  that  have 
thus  passed  into  different  states,  it  is  very  plain  that 
the  thing  of  primary  importance  to  be  accomplished 
is,  as  far  as  may  be  possible,  to  prevent  such  climate 
actions  reaching  their  full  effect.  This  can  only  be 
done  by  promoting  locomotion. 

It  is  therefore  unwise  to  give  legislative  encour 
agement  to  any  thing  that  may  tend  to  make  com 
munities,  or  even  families,  too  stationary.  Fortunate 
ly,  the  intentions  of  the  statesman,  in  this  respect,  are 
greatly  facilitated  by  the  established  usages  respect 
ing  the  inheritance  of  property  and  the  incessant 
breaking  up  of  estates.  Not  less  effectual  is  the  sys 
tem  of  agriculture,  if  such  it  can  be  called,  that  we 
pursue — our  practice  of  killing  land.  A  soil  that  has 
undergone  exhaustion  of  certain  of  its  essential  ingre 
dients,  as  bone-earth,  potash,  or  the  like,  can  not  be 
economically  restored.  It  is  much  cheaper  to  aban 
don  the  ruined  estate  and  move  to  the  virgin  lands 
of  the  West.  That  love  of  the  homestead,  so  charac 
teristic  of  the  settled  populations  of  Europe,  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  exist  among  us.  The  children 
leave  their  father's  hearth  without  reluctance,  for  he 


NECESSITY  OF  PUBLIC  LOCOMOTION,  §5 

is  perpetually  anticipating  leaving  it  himself.  It 
might  have  been  feared  —  perhaps  was  feared  by 
many  observant  persons — that  this  loss  of  local  pat 
riotism  would  imply  the  loss  of  national  sentiment, 
but  the  experience  of  the  civil  war  has  shown  the  in 
correctness  of  such  a  foreboding.  The  history  of  the 
world  can  not  furnish  a  more  splendid  example  of  un 
wavering  fortitude,  unshrinking  self-sacrifice,  in  vindi 
cation  of  national  life.  The  acts  of  which,  it  has  been 
our  privilege  to  be  eye -witnesses,  will  by  future  gen 
erations  of  Americans  be  pointed  to  with  pride  as  the 
greatest  glory  of  their  history — an  incentive  in  their 
inevitable  march  to  imperial  greatness,  a  firm  support 
in  their  days  of  trial. 

The  customs  and  usages  of  American  domestic  life 
have  therefore,  to  a  certain  extent,  made  us  a  locomo 
tive  people.  Not  without  reason  have  many  foreign 
travelers  affirmed  that  we  are  essentially  a  nomadic 
race.  It  is  well  for  our  future  that  we  are  so. 

It  should  be  a  settled  principle  of  American  legis 
lation  to  encourage  in  every  possible  manner  facili 
ties  for  intercommunication,  to  repress  in  the  most 
effectual  way  any  thing  that  might  possibly  act  as  a 
restraint. 

From  the  results  of  the  policy  that  has  been  pur 
sued  in  the  case  of  the  Post-office  system,  very  valu 
able  suggestions  may  be  gathered.  By  reducing  the 
cost  of  the  transmission  of  letters  and  newspapers  to 


86  NECESSITY  OF  PUBLIC  LOCOMOTION. 

the  smallest  possible  amount,  conspicuous  social  ad 
vantages  have  been  gained.  The  family  tie  has  been 
knit  in  spite  of  separation,  the  public  intellect  has 
been  enlarged  by  the  diffusion  of  general  informa 
tion.  That  mental  activity  which  arises  from  the 
concentration  of  masses  of  men  in  great  cities  is  felt 
sympathetically  in  the  most  sparsely  peopled  and  dis 
tant  country  places.  During  the  civil  war  metropoli 
tan  journalism  has  every  where  been  recognized  as  a 
living  power. 

But  it  is  not  enough  that  there  should  be  free 
movement  for  thought;  free  movement  for  the  peo 
ple  themselves  is  of  equal  importance.  That  is  the 
true  method  for  combating  climate  effects — prevent 
ing  communities  from  falling  into  Asiatic  torpor,  and 
contracting  senseless  antipathies  against  each  other. 
Had  the  Southern  States  for  the  last  ten  years  been 
pervaded  by  an  unceasing  stream  of  Northern  travel 
in  every  direction,  the  civil  war  would  not  have  oc 
curred. 

Experience  shows  that  travel  increases  as  its  cost 
diminishes.  Whatever,  therefore,  operates  as  a  tax 
on  locomotion,  is  inconsistent  with  the  highest  princi 
ples  ot  state  policy.  No  community  should  be  per 
mitted  to  take  advantage  of  the  geographical  position 
it  may  happen  to  occupy  for  the  purpose  of  exacting 
a  toll  for  its  own  profit.  Such  practices  may  suit  an 
Arab  sheikh  or  other  Asiatic  chieftain,  who  levies  a 


NECESSITY  OF  PUBLIC  LOCOMOTION.  87 

contribution  on  the  passing  caravan,  but  is  altogether 
inadmissible  in  a  modernized  society.  A  community 
can  not  perpetrate  this  act  without  becoming  politic 
ally  debauched  and  demoralized.  It  is  an  offense 
against  the  highest  public  interests. 

When  the  Railway  system  was  first  being  devel 
oped  in  England,  measures  were  taken  to  give  to  the 
government  an  eventual  and  thorough  control  over 
it.  Already  in  that  country  it  is  agitated  to  consum 
mate  those  measures  by  the  State  assuming  the  pro 
prietorship  of  the  roads,  equalizing  their  rates  of 
charge,  and  reducing  those  rates  to  a  minimum. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  such  a  consummation 
would  produce  very  powerful  social  effects.  In  its 
direction  it  would  act  in  the  same  manner  that  the 
changes  in  the  postal  system  have  done,  those  social 
effects  being  all  of  an  advantageous  kind.  But  En 
gland,  her  comparatively  restricted  geographical  ex 
tent  being  considered,  is  not  pressed  by  those  climate 
considerations  that  are  of  such  paramount  importance 
in  America.  Her  reasons  for  action  in  the  matter  are 
therefore,  it  may  be  said,  of  a  very  subordinate  kind 
compared  with  those  that  concern  us.  In  America, 
transportation  at  the  lowest  possible  cost  assumes  the 
attitude  of  an  affair  of  the  highest  state  necessity. 

In  view  of  that  state  necessity,  all  local  and  indi 
vidual  interests  must  be  compelled  to  give  way. 
How  far  in  future  years,  when  these  problems  are 


88  EFFECTS  OF  LOCOMOTION. 

publicly  better  understood  than  at  present,  it  may  be 
found  politically  expedient  to  give  to  the  general 
government  a  control,  with  the  intention  of  carrying 
the  principles  here  indicated  into  effect,  it  is  needless 
at  present  to  consider. 

Besides  the  physiological  effect  of  locomotion  in 
thus  preventing  a  permanent  impress  from  Climate, 
it  has  moral  consequences  of  no  little  value.  These 
will  be  seen  if  we  compare  the  condition  of  Europe 
before  the  Crusades  with  its  condition  subsequently. 
Vast  hordes  of  men  under  a.  fanatical  impulse  were 
precipitated  upon  the  Holy  Land.  Coming  indis 
criminately  from  all  classes  of  communities  that  were 
scarcely  elevated  above  barbarism,  the  Crusaders 
were  suddenly  brought  in  contact  with  people  in 
habiting  countries  that  for  ages  had  been  the  seats 
of  civilization.  Their  ideas  were  not  only  enlarged, 
but  their  very  style  of  thinking  was  changed.  Who 
ever  escaped  the  perils  of  these  religious  enterprises 
became,-  on  his  return  to  his  native  place,  an  influen 
tial  and  authoritative  teacher.  There  was  a  weaken 
ing  of  the  force  of  those  maxims  that  heretofore  had 
been  a  guide,  society  relieving  itself  of  the  stress  of 
former  modes  of  thought.  It  may  be  doubted  wheth 
er  that  great  religious  movement  known  as  the  Ref 
ormation  would  have  been  possible  had  it  not  been 
for  the  occurrence  of  the  Crusades,  the  precipitation 
of  whatever  there  was  enterprising  in  Europe  upon 


CHANGES  THROUGH  MERCANTILE  ACTIVITY.  89 

Asia.    If  they  did  no  more,  they  certainly  accelerated 
its  occurrence  by  several  hundred  years. 

In  like  manner,  the  discovery  of  America  by  Colum 
bus,  the  doubling  of  the  Cape  by  De  Gama,  and  the 
circumnavigation  of  the  world  by  Magellan,  through 
the  prodigious  military  and  mercantile  activity  they 
generated,  led  to  equally  important  results.  Trade, 
which  until  then  had  been  chiefly  overland  or  terres 
trial,  became  maritime,  a  change  important  in  the 
highest  degree,  since  it  eventually  gave  rise  to  the 
prodigious  development  of  manufacturing  industry. 
Heavy  masses  of  goods  can  never  be  transported  by 
caravans,  though  they  can  easily  in  ships.  The  geo 
graphical  value  of  countries  was  changed.  Egypt, 
for  instance,  lost  her  position.  The  commercial  ar 
rangements  of  Europe  were  completely  dislocated. 
Venice  and  Genoa  were  deprived  of  their  mercantile 
supremacy;  prosperity  left  the  Italian  towns;  the 
commercial  monopolies  so  long  in  the  hands  of  the 
European  Jews  were  broken  down.  These  were  the 
first  steps  of  that  maritime  development  soon  exhib 
ited  by  Western  Europe.  And  since  commercial 
prosperity  is  forthwith  followed  by  the  production 
of  men  and  the  concentration  of  wealth,  and,  more 
over,  implies  an  energetic  intellectual  condition,  it  ap 
peared  before  long  that  the  three  centres  of  popula 
tion,  of  •  wealth,  and  of  intellect  were  shifting  west- 
wardly.  The  front  of  Europe  was  suddenly  changed ; 


90  NECESSITY  OF  MOTION  TO  LIFE. 

the  British  Islands,  hitherto  in  a  sequestered  and  ec 
centric  position,  were  all  at  once  put  in  the  van  of 
the  new  movement.  Wealth  poured  in,  and  markets 
were  sought  for  all  over  the  globe.  The  separate 
principalities  and  kingdoms  were  taught  to  act  in 
unison,  and  the  idea  of  Europe — united  Europe — was 
made  manifest. 

Life,  whether  social  or  personal,  is  a  condition  im 
plying  movement.  Its  energy  is  in  proportion  to  the 
activity  with  which  interior  motions  are  made.  In 
the  animal  body  the  blood  circulates  through  every 
part,  here  carrying  away  worn-out  and  wasted  mate 
rial,  there  presenting  new  substances  to  accomplish 
needful  repairs.  If  one  region  be  too  hot,  the  ever- 
flowing  blood  bears  away  with  it  the  excess  of  tem 
perature  ;  if  another  be  too  cold,  the  blood  imparts  to 
it  some  of  its  own  warmth.  In  this  manner  there  is 
a  perpetual  equalization  of  differences,  a  continual 
restoration  of  structure.  Particles  that  are  in  excess 
at  one  point  are  dissolved,  and  carried  to  others 
where  they  may  be  of  more  use. 

For  the  healthy  condition  of  the  social  system  an 
unceasing  movement  is  also  needed.  There  is  an 
ennui  into  which  a  nation  may  fall.  Hence  the  in 
junction — move,  if  it  only  be  for  the  sake  of  moving 
—really  conveys  a  practical  good,  and  in  this  sense 
motion  may  be  looked  upon  not  only  as  a  means,  but 
also  as  an  end. 


NATIONAL  INTERIOR  MOTION.  91 

Now,  when  we  consider  the  position  of  the  Ameri 
can  continent — its  Atlantic  front  looking  upon  Eu 
rope,  its  Pacific  front  looking  upon  Asia;  when  we 
reflect  how  much  Nature  has  done  for  it  in  the  won 
derful  river  system  she  has  bestowed,  and  how  va 
ried  are  the  mineral  and  agricultural  products  it 
yields,  it  would  seem  as  if  we  should  be  constrained 
by  circumstances  to  carry  out  spontaneously  in  prac 
tical  life  the  abstract  suggestions  of  policy.  A  coun 
try  that  stands  at  the  head  of  all  others  in  its  pro 
ducing  power  must  of  necessity  continually  increase 
its  interior  means  of  motion.  Great  undertakings, 
such  as  the  construction  of  the  Pacific  Railroad,  press 
ed  into  existence  by  commercial  motives  and  fostered 
for  military  reasons,  will  indirectly  accomplish  polit 
ical  objects  not  yielding  in  importance  to  those  that 
are  obvious  and  avowed. 

A  few  years  more,  and  the  influence  of  the  Great 
Republic  will  resistlessly  extend  in  a  direction  that 
will  lead  to  surprising  results.  So  importunate  and 
increasing  is  the  demand  for  human  labor,  so  tempt 
ing  its  remuneration,  so  productive  its  use,  that  those 
stagnant  Asiatic  tribes  to  which  our  attention  has  in 
some  of  these  pages  "^een  directed,  can  not  fail  to  be 
affected.  The  stream  of  Chinese  emigration  already 
setting  into  California  is  but  the  precursor  of  the 
flood  that  is  to  come.  Here  are  the  fields,  there  are 
the  men.  The  dominant  Power  on  the  Pacific  Ocean 


92  POSITION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REPUBLIC. 

must  necessarily  exert  a  controlling  influence  in  the 
affairs  of  Asia. 

The  Eoman  Empire  is  regarded,  perhaps  not  un 
justly,  as  the  most  imposing  of  all  human  political 
creations.  Italy  extended  her  rule  across  the  eastern 
and  western  basins  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  from 
the  confines  of  Parthia  to  Spain.  A  similar  central 
but  far  grander  position  is  occupied  by  the  American 
continent.  The  partitions  of  an  interior  and  narrow 
sea  are  replaced  by  the  two  great  oceans.  But,  since 
History  ever  repeats  itself,  the  maxims  that  guided 
the  policy  of  Rome  in  her  advance  to  sovereignty  are 
not  without  application  here.  Her  mistakes  may  be 
monitions  to  us. 

A  great,  a  homogeneous,  and  yet  an  active  people, 
having  strength  and  security  in  its  political  institu 
tions,  may  look  forward  to  a  career  of  glory.  It  may., 
without  offense,  seek  to  render  its  life  memorable  in 
the  annals  of  the  human  race. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ON   THE   EFFECTS    OF   EMIGRATION. 

Admitting  the  correctness  of  the  division  of  Society  into  three 
grades,  as  established  by  Machiavelli,  the  effect  arising  from 

•  the  emigration  of  each  of  those  grades  is  considered,  and  il 
lustrations  from  the  history  of  Spain  and  England  examined. 
The  extinction  of  the  Romans  and  diffusion  of  the  Arabs  are 
traced  to  their  physiological  causes. 

The  political  consequences  of  immigration  are  illustrated  by  the. 
establishment  of  the  Cotton  manufacture  in  Europe  and  Negro 
slavery  in  America. 

27ie  ante  -  historic  settlement  of  Europe  by  immigrants  from 
Asia,  as  determined  by  the  modern  methods  of  linguistic  re 
search,  is  next  considered,  the  laws  of  Population  explained 
in  connection  therewith,  and  the  necessity  of  material  to  mor 
al  changes  suggested. 

Machiavelli '«  principles  and  the  foregoing  results  are  then  ap 
plied  to  the  United  States — 1st.  European  immigration  in  the 
North  /  2d.  Internal  emigration  to  the  West ;  3d.  Prospective 
emigration  to  the  /South  ;  4th.  Asiatic  immigration  to  the  Pa 
cific  States.  The  evils  contingent  on  the  spread  of  Polygamy, 
and  the  general  effects  of  all  these  movements  on  the  weal'Ji 
and  grandeur  of  the  Republic,  are  shown. 

PRESSURE  at  home  and  inducement  abroad  perpet 
ually  incite  men  to  leave  their  native  country  and 
settle  in  foreign  lands. 

•  In  considering  the  effect  of  such  emigrations,  we 
must  bear  in  mind  the  statement  of  Machiavelli,  that 


94  PRINCIPLES  OF  EMIGRATION. 

•in  every  great  society  there  are  necessarily  three  or 
ders  of  men— a  superior  order,  who  understand  things 
through  their  own  unassisted  mental  powers ;  an  in 
termediate  order,  who  understand  things  when  they 
are  explained  to  them ;  a  lower  order,  who  do  not  un 
derstand  at  all.  Of  the  first,  it  may  be  added  that 
they  are  limited  in  number,  but  dominant  in  intelli 
gence  ;  of  the  second,  that  in  modern  countries  having 
free  journalism  they  fall  under  its  influence,  the  man 
of  this  grade  adopting  the  opinions  of  his  accustomed 
newspaper,  and  unconsciously  retailing  them  as  his 
own ;  of  the  third,  which  is  by  far  the  most  numer 
ous,  its  members  pass  through  life  in  an  intellectual 
monotonous  slumber — they  think  in  monosyllables. 

Now,  the  political  effect  of  emigrations  depends 
upon  this  condition — from  which  of  those  three  or 
ders  has  the  emigrating  mass  issued  ?  We  detect  the 
guiding  principle  at  a  glance.  If  the  drain  has  been 
from  the  lower  or  laboring  class,  the  consequent  re 
sult  may  not  amount  to  much,  for  the  diminution  of 
that  class  is  capable  of  quick  repair.  The  self-multi 
plying  force  of  an  old  society  is,  as  we  shall  shortly 
find,  greater  than  the  number  realized,  which  is  kept 
down  by  resisting  influences ;  and  just  as  the  atmos 
phere  will  press  into  an  exhausted  space,  so  will  that 
unsatisfied,  that  restrained  power  of  multiplication 
quickly  fill  up  the  vacancy  that  has  been  made. 

On  the   other  hand,  should  the   migrating  body 


PRINCIPLES  OF  EMIGRATION.  95 

have  diminished  seriously  the  number  of  the  highest 
class,  the  result  is  a  far  more  important,  a  far  more 
permanent  affair.  A  loss  of  the  direct  influence  of 
these  men  is  no  inconsiderable  thing ;  for,  no  matter 
what  may  be  the  form  of  government  the  affected 
community  may  live  under,  they  will  and  do  control 
public  thought.  Still  more,  Society  has  no  means  of 
recruiting  at  its  pleasure  the  wasted  ranks  of  this 
class.  Such  individuals  come  at  limited  intervals, 
and  only  here  and  there. 

History  furnishes  us  with  many  instructive  in 
stances  as  evidences  of  these  truths. 

The  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus  completed 
that  wonderful  change  in  Europe  which  had  been  be 
gun  by  the  Crusades.  After  the  German  movements 
that  brought  the  Roman  Empire  to  an  end  had  term 
inated,  the  lower  strata  of  population  fell  into  a 
comparatively  quiescent  state.  From  this  condition 
they  had  not  been  sensibly  disturbed  by  the  political 
events  of  the  reign  of  Charlemagne.  The  Holy  Wars 
may,  however,  without  exaggeration,  be  said  to  have 
precipitated  all  Europe  upon  Asia.  A  very  great 
intellectual  change  in  the  whole  continent  was  the 
result. 

The  Crusading  outrush  to  the  East  was  followed 
on  the  discovery  of  America  by  an  outrush  of  ad 
venturers  across  the  Atlantic  to  the  West.  Relig 
ious  sentiment  was  superseded  by  avarice.  There 


96  SPANISH  EMIGRATION. 

was  not  a  people  in  Europe  who  did  not  become  in 
volved.  As  might  be  expected  from  her  position, 
Spain  was  profoundly  implicated  in  all  her  social 
ranks.  Her  men  of  influence  in  civil  life,  in  military 
life,  in  ecclesiastical  life,  all  emigrated  across  the 
ocean.  The  thirst  for  gold  was  too  strong  for  even 
the  pride  of  family.  A  paradise  of  unbounded  sen 
sual  enjoyment  in  this  life,  riches  exceeding  wrhatever 
the  wildest  dreams  of  fanatical  alchemists  had  ever 
suggested — a  realized  El  Dorado — these  were  tempt 
ations  that  the  hot  Spanish  blood  could  not  resist. 
The  melancholy  Peruvian  Inca,  whose  brow  was 
adorned  with  a  diadem  of  scarlet  -  tasseled  fringe, 
when  he  stretched  out  his  finger  on  his  prison  wall, 
and  promised  to  give  vessels  of  gold  to  that  height 
if  they  would  restore  him  to  liberty,  only  added  to 
the  fierce  avarice  of  his  tormentors. 

What  Spain  did  on  this  continent  can  never  be 
too  often  related  —  it  ought  never  to  be  forgotten. 
She  acted  with  an  appalling  atrocity  to  those  In 
dians,  as  though  they  did  not  belong  to  the  human 
race.  Their  lands  and  goods  were  taken  from  them 
by  apostolic  authority.  Their  persons  were  next 
seized  under  the  text  that  the  heathen  are  given  as 
an  inheritance,  and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth 
for  a  possession.  It  was  one  unspeakable  outrage, 
one  unutterable  ruin,  without  discrimination  of  age 
or  sex.  They  who  died  not  under  the  lash  in  a  trop- 


SPANISH  EMIGRATION.  97 

ical  sun,  died  in  the  darkness  of  the  mine.  From  se 
questered  sand-banks,  where  the  red  flamingo  fishes 
in  the  gray  of  the  morning — from  fever-stricken  man 
grove  thickets  and  the  gloom  of  impenetrable  forests 
—from  hiding-places  in  the  clefts  of  rocks  and  the 
solitude  of  invisible  caves — from  the  eternal  snows 
of  the  Andes,  where  there  was  no  witness  but  the 
all-seeing  sun,  there  went  up  to  God  a  cry  of  human 
despair.  By  millions  upon  millions,  whole  races 
and  ijations  were  remorselessly  cut  off.  The  Bishop 
of  Chiapa  affirms  that  more  than  fifteen  millions  were 
exterminated  in  his  time.  From  Mexico  and  Peru  a 
civilization  that  might  have  instructed  Europe  was 
crushed  out. 

The  crime  of  Spain  became  her  punishment.  Look 
at  her  present  state !  Where  is  all  that  enterprise, 
that  energy,  that  intelligence,  which  made  her  the 
leading  nation  of  Europe?  Lost  in  the  wilds  of 
America,  swamped  in  Indian  blood.  Has  she  found 
it  possible  to  recruit  that  true  intellectual  aristocracy 
she  lost  ?  The  emigration  of  her  best  and  bravest 
wrought  her  irreparable  ruin.  The  Mexican  and 
Peruvian  have  had  their  revenge.  There  lies  the  de 
teriorated  country  utterly  past  cure. 

In  Europe  there  is  another  nation  that  from  our 
present  point  of  view  likewise  claims  our  attention. 
The  English  have  peopled  by  emigration,  within 
three  centuries,  very  large  portions  of  the  surface  of 

G 


98  ENGLISH  EMIGRATION. 

the  earth.  The  drain  on  that  population  has  been, 
for  the  most  part,  from  the  second  and  third  classes, 
the  first  having  been  implicated  in  it  but  to  an  insig 
nificant  extent.  This  remark  applies  even  to  the  ex 
treme  case  of  India,  a  country  that  might  be  sup 
posed  to  offer  very  great  temptations. 

As  respects  the  colonization  of  North  America  and 
Australia,  together  with  the  less  important  points,  as 
South  Africa  and  New  Zealand,  there  was  but  little 
inducement  for  those  who  prefer  a  life  of  learned 
ease,  or  who  seek  by  speedy  methods  social  distinc 
tion.  The  work  to  be  accomplished  was  the  hard 
conquest  of  Nature,  the  removing  of  forests,  extract 
ing  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  founding  of  cities,  estab 
lishment  of  trade.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  parent 
country  there  was  an  ancient  and  firmly  seated  aris 
tocracy,  an  established  church  with  great  endow 
ments,  a  law  of  primogeniture,  and  the  not  difficult 
attainment  of  eminent  distinction  by  approved  tal 
ent.  In  a  double  manner,  then,  these  circumstances 
tended  to  restrain  the  first  class  from  participating  in 
the  movement ;  and  a  singular  benefit  was  undoubt 
edly  derived,  as  we  see  in  the  result,  for  the  intrinsic 
strength  of  that  nation  has,  beyond  question,  from 
these  emigrations  suffered  no  decline. 

In  certain  particulars  English  Emigration  resem 
bles  the  Emigrations  from  Ancient  Greece.  Both 
cases  present  a  restricted  territory  as  the  immediate 


MEDITERRANEAN  EMIGRATION.  99 

inciting  cause,  and  a  tendency  to  colonization  as  the 
form.  On  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  and 
Black  Seas,  from  Sinope  to  Saguntum,  were  scat 
tered  affiliated  settlements.  These  probably  were 
founded  on  the  general  principles  first  adopted  by 
Tyre,  a  city  that  led  the  way  in  the  organization  of 
European,  Asiatic,  and  North  African  commerce. 
The  wealth  accumulated  by  some  of  these  colonial 
towns  led  to  such  habits  of  luxury  as  to  excite  the 
wonder  of  antiquity,  and  actually  to  become  proverb 
ial.  The  debaucheries  and  dissipation  of  the  Syba 
rites  were  sustained  by  their  lucrative  commerce. 
This  intercolonial  trade  was  chiefly  for  slaves,  min 
eral  products,  articles  of  manufacture,  tin,  bronze,  oil, 
amber,  dyed  goods,  and  worked  metals.  Position  or 
accident  made  particular  towns  the  chief  marts  for 
special  commodities.  Thus,  Delos  was  the  great  de 
pot  for  slaves.  It  is  affirmed  that  as  many  as  ten 
thousand  were  sold  there  in  a  single  day.  Notwith 
standing  their  wealth,  none  of  the  Grecian  colonies 
attained  the  political  power  of  the  greatest  of  the 
Tynan  colonies,  Carthage,  which  maintained  for  many 
years  and  through  many  wars  a  nearly  evenly  bal 
anced  military  power  with  Eome  itself. 

The  intrinsic  weakness  of  such  colonial  systems  is 
shown  by  the  fate  of  those  of  Tyre  and  Greece.  Both 
were  ruined  by  the  policy  of  Alexander  the  Great. 
Though  the  former  city  had  suffered  severely  in  her 


100  TYRE  AND  ALEXANDRIA. 

contests  with  the  Babylonian  Empire,  and  Old  Tyre 
had  been  destroyed'  after  a  siege  of  thirteen  years 
by  a  Babylonian  king,  her  site  being  made  "  as  bare 
as  the  top  of  a  rock  on  which  the  fisherman  spreads 
his  nets,"  and  "  the  isles  of  the  sea  were  troubled  at 
her  departure,"  the  new  City  had  succeeded  to  much 
of  the  commercial  prosperity  of  the  Old.  It  was  not 
from  any  vindictive .  spirit,  but  because  he  discerned 
plainly  the  political  power  derived  through  its  posi 
tion,  that  Alexander  resolved  on  the  utter  destruc 
tion  of  the  place.  He  took  it,  after  a  siege  of  seven 
months,  by  building  a  mole  from  the  main  land  to 
the  island  on  which  the  town  stood.  Immediately 
after  the  assault,  in  which  a  vast  multitude  of  its  de 
fenders  fell,  two  thousand  of  the  inhabitants  were 
crucified.  With  the  fall  of  Tyre  the  domination  of 
Asia  as  a  Mediterranean  power  came  to  an  end,  and 
with  the  foundation  of  Alexandria  came  the  commer 
cial  ruin  of  Greece. 

It  is  singular  how  completely  these  prosperous  co 
lonial  settlements,  with  the  single  exception  of  Car 
thage,  disappeared  politically  on  the  extinction  of 
their  commercial  centres.  Such  establishments  can 
never  be  a  source  of  power  to  the  mother  country. 
If  she  relies  upon  them,  they  will  fail  her  in  her  hour 
of  need.  Founded  for  the  sake  of  gain,  a  habit  of 
greed  grows  upon  them — so  much  that  they  become 
unwilling  to  bear  sacrifices,  even  though  obviously 
for  their  own  good. 


AMERICAN  IMMIGRATION.  101 

What  Tyre  and  Greece  were  in  the  Mediterranean 
Sea,  which  was  almost  the  world  to  them,  England 
has  been  on  the  greater  theatre  of  the  globe.  She 
has  founded  by  emigration  colonies  in  North  Ameri 
ca,  the  West  Indies,  South  Africa,  Australia,  New 
Zealand,  India.  In  forty -three  years,  counting  from 
1815,  the  close  of  her  wars  with  France,  she  sent 
forth  about  four  and  a  half  millions  of  souls. 

Though  the  intention  of  the  English  in  these  move 
ments  has  chiefly  been  the  founding  of  colonies,  the 
motive  has  varied  at  different  times.  In  the  case  of 
that  which  events  have  proved  to  have  been  by  far 
the  most  important  of  them  all — the  Puritan  emigra 
tion — it  was  religious  sentiment. 

For  many  years  the  European  current  of  emigra 
tion  to  the  United  States  was  comparatively  feeble 
It  was  mainly  derived  from  England,  Ireland,  Scot 
land,  and  Germany,  and  continued  at  a  nearly  uni 
form  annual  rate  from  the  American  Revolution  un 
til  about  1806.  From  1784  to  1794  the  yearly  rate 
was  only  about  4000.  In  the  latter  year  it  rose  to 
10,000,  but  never  recovered  that  point  again  until 
1817.  This  falling  oif  was  due  to'  the  European  wars, 
which  not  only  created  an  urgent  demand  for  men, 
both  for  land  and  sea  service,  but  also  to  the  enforce 
ment  of  the  principle  at  that  time  insisted  upon  by 
the  English  government,  that  a  subject  could  never 
throw  off  his  allegiance — "  once  a  subject,  always  a 


102  AMERICAN  IMMIGRATION. 

subject."  Experience  had  led  to  the  conclusion  that 
not  much  reliance  could  be  placed  on  the  affection  a 
man  may  spontaneously  feel  for  the  country  of  his 
birth,  an  affection  arising  from  the  recollections  of 
early  life. 

In  1817,  when  the  fear  of  English  impressment 
had  passed  away,  the  emigration  to  the  United  States 
rose  to  22,240.  In  this  aggregate  there  were  included 
many  native-born  Americans,  who  had,  through  the 
accidents  of  the  war,  been  detained  in  Europe,  and 
were  now  returning.  Due  allowance  made  for  this, 
the  sudden  impetus  may  be  traced  to  the  declining 
demand  for  men  for  military  and  naval  purposes,  the 
great  derangement  in  the  pursuits  of  the  working 
classes  as  a  state  of  war  was  exchanged  for  a  state 
of  peace,  and  the  financial  disturbances  which  were 
occurring  or  impending. 

The  current  now  steadily  gathered  force.  In  36i 
years,  ending  December  31st,  1855,  the  United  States 
received  nearly  four  millions  and  a  quarter  of  immi 
grants.  Among  them  are  found 


1,348,682  British. 
1,206,087  Germans. 
207,492  English. 

747,930  Irish. 
34,599  Scotch. 
188,725  French. 

Under  the  title  "  British,"  in  this  table,  are  included 
English,  Scotch,  and  Irish ;  their  relative  proportions 
can  not  now  be  ascertained.  Competent  authorities 


AMERICAN  IMMIGRATION.  103 

have,  however,  been  led  to  the  conclusion  that  of 
these  at  least  one  million  were  from  Ireland.  This 
would  make  the  total  Irish  immigration  for  that  pe 
riod  1,747,930. 

From  the  best  estimates  now  accessible,  it  appears 
that  the  total  immigration  in  the  United  States,  since 
the  Kevolution  to  the  close  of  1855,  has  been  nearly 
four  and  a  half  millions : 

Immigrants  up  to  Sept.  30th,  1819     .        250,000 
"  "     Dec.  31st,  1855       .     4,212,624 

4,462,624 

In  a  general  manner,  it  may  therefore  be  affirmed 
that  the  United  States  have  gained  as  much  from  Eu 
rope  by  immigration,  as  Great  Britain  has  lost  from 
her  domestic  population  by  emigration.  At  the  com 
mencement  of  the  civil  war  the  number  did  not  differ 
much  from  five  millions. 

It  might  be  supposed  that  the  English  emigration, 
as  was  the  case  with  the  Greek,  originated  mainly 
from  over-population  at  home,  but  to  this  cause  must 
unquestionably  be  added  a  willing  disposition  to  re 
sort  to  expatriation.  If  these  movements  have  been 
promoted  in  the  British  Islands  by  the  facilities  aris 
ing  from  the  same  language  being  spoken  in  Ameri 
ca,  that  motive  will  not  apply  to  the  case  of  Germany 
as  it  stands  in  comparison  with  that  of  France.  The 
German  immigration  has  been  nearly  seven  fold  that 
of  France.  It  has  long  been  remarked  that  the  shep- 


104  TRIBAL  AND  INDIVIDUAL  EMIGRATION. 

herd  population,  which  in  ancient  times  reached  from 
the  Baltic  to  China,  was  perpetually  occupied  in  war 
like  migrations,  readily  uniting  itself  under  chieftains 
to  make  incessant  attacks  on  the  Asiatic  empires,  and 
eventually  accomplishing  the  destruction  of  the  Ko- 
man.  It  kept  every  thing  in  a' disturbed  state.  Not 
until  Central  Europe  became  engaged  in  other  pur 
suits  did  these  commotions  cease. 

The  essential  difference  between  ancient  and  mod 
ern  migrations  consists  in  this,  that  the  former  were 
tribal,  the  latter  individual,  and,  indeed,  continually 
becoming  more  and  more  exclusively  so.  A  tribe 
forcing  itself  into  the  seats  of  its  neighbor  can  only 
accomplish  its  pjurpose  by  violence,  which  necessarily 
provokes  resistance.  The  movements  of  the  Goths, 
the  Huns,  the  Magyars,  the  Turks,  the  Tartars,  are 
cases  in  point;  but  where  the  movement  is  individ 
ual,  the  intruder  is  quietly  and  imperceptibly  melted 
down  in  the  population  among  whom  he  has  come. 

But,  though  tribal  emigration  has  thus  declined 
into  individual,  the  races  that  were  expansive  in  the 
ancient  times  still  continue  to  be  so.  In  the  case  of 
emigration  to  the  United  States,  the  obstruction  aris 
ing  from  difference  of  language  applied  quite  as  much 
to  the  Germans  as  to  the  French.  Admitting  the 
great  drain  there  had  been  upon  the  latter  through 
their  revolutionary  and  imperial  wars,  there  were 
certainly  as  great  temptations  for  them  in  Canada, 


CHANGES  BY  EMIGRATION.  105 

as  there  were  for  the  former  in  the  Union.  The 
Teutons  and  Saxons  have  never  lost  their  wandering 
propensity,  though,  with  the  progress  of  civilization, 
which  has  imparted  safety  and  rapidity  to  individual 
locomotion,  the  manner  of  satisfying  it  has  changed. 

This  change  from  tribal  to  individual  emigration 
tends  to  restrict  the  movement  to  the  third  social 
grade.  It  is  by  that  class  that  domestic  pressure 
and  foreign  inducement  are  most  powerfully  felt; 
and  hence,  though  the  losses  of  Great  Britain  have 
been  numerically  so  great,  her  intrinsic  strength,  as 
already  remarked,  has  suffered  no  decline. 

The  transplantation  of  men  can  not  be  accomplish 
ed  without  physiological  modifications  ensuing.  I 
may  now  indicate,  in  a  general  manner,  the  princi 
ples  governing  those  modifications. 

When,  from  its  original  seat,  a  people  is  suddenly 
transposed  to  some  new  abode,  in  which  the  climate, 
the  seasons,  the  aspect  of  Nature  are  altogether  dif 
ferent,  it  spontaneously  commences  in  all  its  parts  a 
movement  to  come  into  harmony  with  the"  new  con 
ditions — a  movement  of  a  secular  nature,  and  imply 
ing  the  consumption  of  many  generations'  for  its  ac 
complishment.  During  such  a  period  of  transmuta 
tion  there  is,  of  course,  an  increased  waste  of  life,  a 
risk,  indeed,  of  total  disappearance  or  national  death ; 
but,  the  change  once  completed,  the  requisite  corre-. 


106  CHANGE  BY  BLOOD-ADMIXTURE. 

spondence  once  attained,  things  go  forward  again  in 
an  orderly  manner  on  the  basis  of  the  new  modifica 
tion  that  has  been  assumed.  When  the  change  to 
be  accomplished  is  very  profound,  involving  exten 
sive  anatomical  alterations,  not  merely  in  the  appear 
ance  of  the  skin,  but  even  in  the  structure  of  the 
skull,  long  periods  of  time  are  undoubtedly  required, 
and  many  generations  of  individuals  are  consumed. 

Or,  by  interior  disturbance,  particularly  by  blood 
admixture,  with  more  rapidity  may  a  national  type 
be  affected,  the  result  plainly  depending  on  the  ex 
tent  to  which  admixture  has  taken  place.  This  is  a 
disturbance  capable  of  mathematical  computation. 
If  the  blood  admixture  is  only  of  limited  amount 
and  transient  in  its  application,  its  effect  will  sensi 
bly  disappear  in  no  very  long  period  of  time,  though 
never,  perhaps,  in  absolute  reality.  This  accords 
with  the  observation  of  philosophical  historians,  who 
agree  in  the  conclusion  that  a  small  tribe  intermin 
gling  with  a  larger  one  will  only  disturb  it  in  a  tem 
porary  manner,  and  after  the  course  of  a  few  years 
the  effect  will  cease  to  be  perceptible.  The  incoming 
stream  not  only  brings  its  physical  peculiarities,  but 
its  mental  peculiarities  too.  Its  intrinsic  force  is, 
however,  very  far  from  being  as  great  as  might  have 
been  anticipated,  for  its  own  condition,  through  cli 
mate,  is  about  to  change ;  it  has  not,  therefore,  that 
fixity  of  purpose  and  resolution  that  it  possessed  in 


NATIONAL  HOMOGENEOUSNESS.  107 

its  native  seat.  The  tendency  to  homogeneousness 
is  all  the  time  felt.  It  is  as  if  a  few  drops  of  water 
were  put  into  a  tumbler  of  wine,  and  the  water  itself 
gradually  turning  into  wine.  In  the  first  moments 
the  admixture  might  be  apparent  enough,  but  it 
would  become  indistinguishable  at  last. 

Moreover,  as  the  invaded  community  gradually 
grows  or  expands,  the  same  intrusive  volume  is  of 
relatively  less  and  less  effect. 

National  homogeneousness  is  thus  obviously  se-, 
cured  by  the  operation  of  two  distinct  agencies— the 
first,  gradual  but  inevitable  dilution ;  the  second,  mo 
tion  to  come  into  harmony  with  the  external  natural 
state.  The  two  conspire  in  their  effects. 

Homogeneousness  in  a  nation  makes  it  conserva 
tive,  and  secures  its  internal  stability  by  producing  a 
common  direction  of  thought ;  for  though,  of  neces 
sity,  the  different  orders  of  population  occupy  them 
selves  mentally  with  different  things,  it  does  not  fol 
low  but  that  the  modes  of  thinking  of  all  may  be 
alike.  Historians  have  long  remarked  how  striking 
ly  this  holds  good  in  the  old  empires  of  Asia ;  and 
that,  though  monarchs  and  their  ministers  may  be 
punished  during  political  troubles,  it  never  occurs  to 
any  one  that  the  system  is  wrong,  or  that  it  needs 
the  slightest  change.  On  the  contrary,  in  Europe 
the  different  orders  think  differently;  there  is  an  in 
trinsic  difference  between  the  conclusions  of  the  in- 


108  BLOOD-ADMIXTURE  AFFECTS  THOUGHT. 

telligent  few  and  the  fetichisms  of  the  innumerable 
illiterate  mass.  This  is  the  cause  that  on  that  con 
tinent  government  has  become  so  difficult,  and  that 
there  is  nothing  certain  as  to  its  right  principles,  and 
no  unanimity  in  religion. 

The  foregoing  principles  are  illustrated  in  a  strik 
ing  manner  by  the  history  of  the  Romans.  From  a 
central  nucleus  in  Italy  they  spread  all  round  the 
Mediterranean  Sea.  Greek,  Asiatic,  Syrian,  Egyptian, 
African,  Spaniard,  Gaul,  Briton,  were  all  conquered 
and  contaminated  by  them,  and  contaminated  them 
in  return.  But  how  stood  the  numerical  relation? 
What  was  the  blood  of  Italy  transfused  into  all  that 
foreign  blood  ?  and  what,  in  the  nature  of  the  thing, 
must  become  of  the  Romans?  They  were  literally 
dissolved  and  lost  in  the  conterminous  races.  With 
them  went  all  their  ideas,  all  their  institutions. 
Their  political  forms  vanished — their  religious  forms, 
their  paganism,  disappeared.  On  the  contrary,  the 
thoughts  of  the  conquered  people  vanquished  the 
thoughts  of  the  Romans.  In  the  most  important  of 
all  instances  that  can  be  adduced,  we  see  how  true 
this  is.  Christianity  did  not  originate  in  Imperial 
Rome ;  it  was  not  imposed  by  her  on  the  provinces. 
It  originated  in  the  provinces,  and  was  by  them 
forced  on  the  reluctant  arbi tress  of  the  world. 

In  this  mortal  adulteration  of  the  true  Roman 
blood  there  was  one  particular  influence  deserving 


SOCIAL  CORRUPTION  IN  ROME.  1Q9 

our  thoughtful  attention.  It  operated  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  Empire — in  Italy  itself.  Incredible  dis 
sipation,  the  offspring  of  enormous  riches,  sapped  so 
ciety.  In  the  reigns  of  the  first  Emperors  it  was 
looked  upon  as  a  singular  felicity  to  have  no  family. 
I  can  here  only  touch  lightly  on  that  state  of  things ; 
but  whoever  will  reflect  on  the  subject  will  see  that 
the  matter  must  have  pressed  severely  on  the  state 
before  law  after  law,  each  more  stringent  than  its 
predecessor,  was  enacted  to  correct  the  evil.  The 
thing  went  on  from  bad  to  worse,  until  slave  concu 
binage  was  almost  universal.  No  language  can  de 
scribe  the  state  of  Rome  after  the  civil  wars.  The 
accumulation  of  power  and  wealth  gave  rise  to  a 
universal  depravity.  Law  ceased  to  be  of  any  value. 
A  suitor  must  deposit  a  bribe  before  a  trial  could  be 
had.  The  social  fabric  was  a  festering  mass  of  rot 
tenness.  The  people  had  become  a  populace,  the 
aristocracy  was  demoniac,  the  city  was  a  hell.  No 
crime  that  the  annals  of  human  wickedness  can  show 
was  left  unperpetrated.  Remorseless  murders;  the 
betrayal  of  husbands,  wives,  friends ;  poisoning  re 
duced  to  a  system.  Legal  marriage  had  almost 
ceased.  The  younger  women  had  become  so  incred 
ibly  extravagant  that  the  men  affirmed  they  could 
not  support  them.  In  the  time  of  Caesar  it  was  nec 
essary  for  the  government  to  interfere,  and  actually 
put  a  premium  on  marriage.  He  gave  rewards  to 


HO  SOCIAL  CORRUPTION  IN  ROME. 

women  who  had  many  children ;  prohibited  those 
who  were  under  forty -five  years  of  age,  and  who  had 
no  children,  from  wearing  jewels  and  riding  in  litters, 
hoping  by  such  social  disabilities  to  correct  the  evil. 
Finding  tha"  this  was  of  no  avail,  Augustus,  in  view 
of  the  general  avoidance  of  legal  marriage  and  resort 
to  concubinage  with  slaves,  was  compelled  to  im 
pose  penalties  on  the  unmarried — to  enact  that  they 
should  not  inherit  by  will,  except  from  relations. 
Plutarch  emphatically  stigmatized  the  condition  when 
he  wrote,  "The  Romans  marry  to  be  heirs,  and  not  to 
have  heirs.1' 

Nations  can  not  be  permanently  modified  except 
by  principles  or  actions  conspiring  with  their  exist 
ing  tendency.  Violence  perpetrated  upon  them  pass 
es  away,  leaving,  perhaps,  in  a  few  generations,  no 
vestige  of  itself.  Even  Victory  is  conquered  by  Time. 
The  extinction  of  Races  of  men  is  never  accomplished 
by  Force,  but  by  insidious  agencies,  that  modify  the 
men  themselves. 

Such  was  the  effect  as  regards  the  Roman  race.  It 
slowly  died  out  in  Italy  itself;  and,  particularly  after 
the  wars  of  Justinian,  the  German  tribes  flowed  in  to 
fill  the  void.  The  splendid  architecture,  the  magnifi 
cent  recollections,  the  glorious  sky,  the  fields  that 
had  been  so  lately  a  garden — did  these  forthwith 
raise  the  intruders  to  the  standard  of  the  departed  ? 
Changes  in  the  human  race  take  time.  For  a  thou- 


THE  MODERN* ITALIAN.  HI 

sand  years  the  condition  of  that  population  was  as 
debased  as  it  is  possible  for  that  of  a  community  to 
be.  Meanwhile  climate  and  the  aspect  of  nature 
were  gradually  doing  their  work,  and  out  of  such 
base  material  the  modern  Italian  arose. 

There  is  a  tendency  in  a  hybrid  offspring  to  ex 
hibit  a  preference  for  that  which  may  be  regarded 
as  the  more  honorable  of  its  constituents,  and  this 
even  though  the  commingling  has  occurred  in  a  vio 
lent  way,  as  by  conquest.  The  barbarian  invasions 
of  Italy  had  in  a  few  centuries  in  this  manner  com 
pletely  amalgamated  the  remnant  of  the  Roman  eth 
nical  element  that  still  remained  in  the  peninsula— 
so  completely,  that  the  old  manners  were  gone,  the 
old  religion  supplanted,  the  language  dead.  Yet  the 
conquering  element  acknowledged  the  supremacy  of 
the  conquered.  It  willingly  forgot  its  traditions  be 
yond  the  Danube,  and  cherished  a  delusive  pride  in 
the  glory  of  the  great  republican  times. 

Blood  degeneration  implies  thought  degeneration. 
As  the  great  statesman  to  whom  I  have  already  re 
ferred,  himself  an  Italian,  and  profoundly  appreciating 
these  things,  observes,  Caesar  and  Pompey  had  disap 
peared,  John,  Matthew,  and  Peter  had  come  in  their 
stead.  Barbarized  names  are  the  outward  and  visi 
ble  signs  of  barbarized  -ideas.  It  was  nothing  more 
than  might  be  expected  that,  in  this  mongrel  race, 
customs,  and  language,  and  even  names,  should  change 


112  ARABIAN  EMIGRATION. 

—that  rivers,  and  towns,  and  men  should  receive  new 
appellations.  Nor  was  it  until  the  Italian  population 
had  re-established  itself  in  a  physiological  relation 
with  the  country  that  manly  thoughts  and  true  con 
ceptions  could  be  regained.  Ideas  and  dogmas,  that 
would  not  have  been  tolerated  for  an  instant  in  the 
pure  old  homogeneous  Koman  race,  found  acceptance 
in  this  adulterated,  this  festering  mass. 

I  will  still  farther  enforce  these  principles  by  an  il 
lustration  scarcely  inferior  in  weight  to  that  furnish 
ed  by  Koine  herself. 

Hitherto  we  have  been  considering  Nations,  civil 
ized  and  barbarian,  who  were  animated  by  ideas  that 
we  may  strictly  term  European.  But  these  princi 
ples  are  illustrated  with  equal  emphasis  if  the  com 
munities  under  examination  are  Asiatic. 

When,  under  Mohammed  and  his  successors,  the 
Arabians  burst  forth  from  their  native  seats  and  car 
ried  their  conquering  arms  into  the  heart  of  Asia  on 
one  side,  and  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean  on  the  other,  so 
rapid  was  their  diffusion,  so  small  their  own  mass,  so 
prodigious  the  volume  of  humanity  with  which  they 
mixed,  that  it  might  have  seemed  impossible  but  that 
an  instant  fate  should  overtake  them  —  their  con 
quests  ephemeral,  themselves  vanishing  away.  But 
the  very  reverse  occurred.  For  centuries  in  succes 
sion,  the  countries  they  had  conquered  they  held; 
nay,  more,  they  literally  Arabized  them. 


EFFECTS  OF  POLYGAMY.  113 

The  explanation  of  this  surprising  political  result 
turns  altogether  on  the  position  of  the  female  sex 
among  Asiatics.  In  barbarous  states  the  woman  is 
the  slave  of  the  in; m ;  the  Asiatic  makes  her  his  toy, 
the  European  his  companion.  The  avarice  of  the  for 
mer  for  beauty  is  replaced  in  the  latter  by  an  avarice 
for  wealth.  The  treasures  of  the  one  are  placed  in  a 
harem,  those  of  the  other  are  invested  in  the  public 
funds. 

The  natural  position  of  the  female  sex  in  this  re 
spect  is  indicated  at  once  by  the  relation  of  numbers. 
In  Europe,  for  every  106  male  births  there  are  100 
female;  hence  we  may  truly  affirm  that  monogamy 
is  the  proper  condition  of  our  species,  and  that,  apart 
from  its  social  evils,  polygamy  is  an  unnatural  state. 

But,  though  this  is  the  scientific  conclusion  to 
which  we  must  come,  no  one  can  deny  the  prodig 
ious  political  power  of  polygamic  institutions.  What 
must  be*  the  inevitable  result  when  there  were  single 
families  sometimes  of  nearly  two  hundred  children, 
who  were  all  glorying  in  their  descent  from  their 
conquering  father  and  speaking  his  tongue  ?  Was  it 
to  be  wondered  at  that  tribute  in  all  the  vanquished 
countries  soon  ceased,  an$  that  the  physiognomy  and 
mental  constitution  of  the  Arab  every  where  pre 
vailed  ? 

To  this,  the  direct  effect  of  polygamy,  we  must  add 
the  influence  of  that  most  ungallant  practice  of  the 

H 


POSITION  OF  WOMEN  IN  THE  EAST. 

Asiatics,  the  exclusion  of  their  women  from  society. 
It  cut  off  effectually  wrliat  little  influence  was  left. 
"We  need  not  believe  them  when  they  say  that  the}' 
do  not  do  this  through  jealousy ;  nor  need  we  accept 
their  defamation,  that  so  deeply  implanted  in  the  fe 
male  heart  is  the  love  of  fashion  and  novelty,  that 
there  is  no  grotesqueness  too  surprising  for  women  to 
imitate ;  that,  if  unconfined,  they  produce  a  continual 
change  of  customs  and  an  unsettled  state ;  and  that 
any  community  desiring  stability  and  permanence 
must  shut  them  up. 

That  is  their  shameful  slander,  that  their  scandal 
ous  practice.  If  they  do  gain  their  wished-for  stag 
nation,  what  is  the  price  they  pay?  —  the  family. 
The  monogamous  habit  makes  the  family.  It  leads 
to  the  accumulation  and  transmission  of  wealth  from 
generation  to  generation  in  the  same  house.  With 
this  arises  a  liability  to  a  concentration  of  power  in 
castes,  and  the  use  of  surnames  that  perpetuate  fam 
ily  interests  and  family  pride.  In  Europe  the  ca 
reer  of  improvement  is  in  the  Society,  in  Asia  it  is  in 
the  Individual  Doubtless,  in  Asia,  there  are  women 
who  can  more  than  rival  the  bewitching  fascinations 
of  their  European  sisters— ^women  of  exquisite  form 
and  of  transcendent  loveliness.  A  village  in  Pal 
estine  was  the  birthplace  of  the  Madonna!  But 
among  us  there  is  more  than  all  that — something 
that  they  can  never  see,  something  that  is  produced 


THE  SAKACENS  IN  EUROPE.  115 

by  the  family  and  social  relation,  for  it  is  therein  that 
the  beautiful  qualities  of  our  women  shine  forth. 
At  the  close  of  a  long  life,  checkered  with  pleasures 
and  misfortunes;  how  often  does  the  aged  man  with 
emotion  confess  that,  though  all  the  ephemeral  ac 
quaintances  and  attachments  of  his  career  have  end 
ed  in  disappointment  and  alienation,  the  wife  of  his 
youth  is  still  his  friend !  In  a  world  from  which 
every  thing  else  seems  to  be  passing  away,  her  affec 
tion  alone  is  unchanged — true  to  him  in  sickness  as 
in  health,  in  misfortune  as  in  prosperity,  true  in  the 
hour*  of  death. 

Thus,  in  the  spread  of  the  Arabians,  if  the  sword 
made  the  conquest,  Polygamy  secured  it.  A  social 
remodeling  in  all  the  subjugated  countries  took  ef 
fect.  There  lies  the  secret  of  the  permanence  of  the 
Arab  and  of  the  disappearance  of  the  Roman. 

Besides  the  effects  here  pointed  out,  the  Moham-  , 
medan  emigration  into  Europe  has  left  an  impression 
so  deep  as  to  impart  a  characteristic  feature  to  mod 
ern  civilized  life.  To  those  Orientals  we  must  im 
pute  the  immediate  origin  of  the  scientific  and  indus 
trial  pursuits  of  our  own  times.  Nay,  more,  their 
ideas  and  the  consequences  of  their  actions,  both  for 
evil  and  for  good,  have  tinctured  the  daily  life  of 
America.  An  art  introduced  by  the  Arabians  into 
Spain  was  the  inciting  cause  of  the  great  develop 
ment  of  the  Slave  system  in  the  United  States — that 


116  MOORISH  ART  AND  SCIENCE. 

system  for  the  sake  of  which  the  civil  war  was  pro 
voked.  •  For,  though  in  one  respect  the  growth  and 
manufacture  of  qotton  may  be  said  to  be  indigenous 
here,  since  fabrics  of  that  material  were  extensively 
used  by  the  Mexicans  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  by 
Cortez,  it  was  not  the  spread  of  this,  but  of  the  Eu 
ropean  cotton  industry,  that  has  affected  the  South 
ern  States  so  profoundly. 

It  is  scarcely  possible  to  refer  to  a  more  striking 
instance  of  the  impression  that  may 'be  made  by  the 
habits  of  emigrants  on  the  communities  in  which  they 
have  resided.  The  Moors  have  long  ago  been  re 
moved  from  Spain,  but  the  arts  they  there  introduced 
have  spread  to  other  countries,  and  permanently  in 
fluenced  their  life. 

It  has  sometimes  been  asked,  not  without  an  air 
of  triumph,  where  are  the  proofs  of  our  indebtedness 
to  the  Mohammedans,  and  especially  to  the  Moorish 
invaders  of  Spain?  It  has  likewise  been  asserted 
that  the  Saracenic  mind  never  rose  above  mere  com- 
mentatorship  upon  Greek  originals  in  matters  of  sci 
ence,  and  in  matters  of  art  was  altogether  barren  and 
worthless.  So  far  as  science  is  concerned,  I  have  else 
where  shown  how  untrue  and  unjust  such  a  state 
ment  is,  and  that,  in  reality,  the  scientific  knowledge 
of  modern  Europe  is  the  offspring  of  the  conquest 
of  Spain ;  that  it  was  a  boon  not  only  received  with 
reluctance,  but  actually  resisted  with  bitterness  by 


THE  COTTON  MANUFACTURE.  117 

our  forefathers,  because  its  fundamental  principles 
were  supposed  to  be  in  opposition  to  their  habits  of 
thought  and  interests.  And  now,  as  respects  indus 
trial  art,  in  the  midst  of  the  miracles  in  which  we 
live,  and  which,  within  the  last  century,  has  not  only 
figuratively,  but  in  reality,  revolutionized  the  face  of 
the  earth,  the  same  assertion  may  be  made.  To  the 
Saracens  we  are  indebted  for  the  cotton  manufacture. 
Through  their  influence  that  art  was  extended  from 
Japan  to  the  Gulf  of  Guinea,  from  the  Pyrenees  to 
the  equinoctial  line.  They  spread  the  use  of  that 
material  which  at  this  day  constitutes  a  chief  source 
of  the  wealth  of  manufacturing  Europe  and  of  agri 
cultural  America.  As  in  the  sciences — mathematics, 
astronomy,  chemistry,  etc. — they  have  left  an  indeli 
ble  impression,  of  which  such  words  as  algebra,  alma 
nac,  alcohol,  and  many  others  that  might  be  mention 
ed,  are  the  enduring  reminiscences,  so  in  this  branch 
of  industry  there  are  like  witnesses :  not  a  few  of  its 
terms  that  have  been  incorporated  in  our  speech  are 
of  Oriental  origin.  The  word  cotton  itself  is  Arabic ; 
muslin  is  so  called  from  Mosul,  a  city  on  the  banks 
of  the  Tigris,  where  was  once  the  chief  seat  of  its 
manufacture ;  calico,  from  Calicut,  in  India.  The  un- 
der-garment  worn  by  ladies  passes  under  a  name 
which  shows  from  whom  they  derived  it,  for  chemise 
is  an  Arabic  word. 

The  cotton  manufacture  was  commenced  in  Spain 


118  THE  COTTON  MANUFACTURE. 

by  Abderahman  III.  about  A.D.  930,  a  period  during 
which  attention  seems  to  have  been  particularly  di 
rected  by  the  Moors  to  the  improvement  of  agricul 
ture  and  manufactures,  while  the  rest  of  Europe  was 
falling  deeper  and  deeper  into  barbarism  and  night. 
The  Khalif  introduced  into  the  peninsula  the  sugar 
cane,  rice,  the  mulberry  -  tree,  with  many  improve 
ments  in  such  arts  as  tanning  and  the  manufacture 
of  silk.  Cotton  was  carried  into  Sicily  by  the  Sara 
cens  on  their  occupancy  of  that  island,  and,  indeed, 
from  Spain  the  use  of  it  spread  more  or  less  all  over 
the  north  and  east  of  Europe.  One  of  the  Moham 
medan  applications  of  this  vegetable  product  was 
destined  to  be  of  the  utmost  value :  it  was  the  inven 
tion  of  cotton  paper.  The  real  merit  of  the  invention 
of  the  art  of  printing  lies  not,  as  is  commonly  sup 
posed,  in  the  contrivance  of  the  press  and  types,  but 
in  the  making  of  paper.  The  process  of  multiplying 
impressions  by  seals  and  stamps,  which  is  essentially 
a  printing  process,  had  been  known  from  the  remotest 
antiquity ;  but  such  operations  could  never  be  made 
available  for  the  extensive  dissemination  of  knowl 
edge  until  something  more  abundant  and  cheaper 
than  papyrus  and  parchment  was  discovered.  This 
want  was  supplied  by  the  Arabian  cotton  paper.  A 
charter  of  Roger,  king  of  Sicily,  A.D.  1102,  is  express 
ly  stated  to  have  been  written  on  that  substance,  and, 
in  fact,  there  are  traces  of  its  use  somewhat  earlier. 


HINDOO  COTTON  MANUFACTURE.  H9 

The  Moors  also  made  paper  of  linen  long  before  it 
was  known  in  any  other  part  of  Europe. 

But,  though  cotton  was  resorted  to  as  an  article  of 
clothing  by  the  Arabs  from  the  earliest  times  (from 
the  Khalif  downward  they  wore  dresses  of  it),  there 
was  another  Oriental  nation  who  greatly  excelled 
them  in  the  perfection  of  its  manufacture.  Long  be 
fore  the  Macedonian  invasion  the  Hindoos  had  prac 
ticed  this  art,  and  to  our  own  times  have  maintained 
so  great  an  excellence  in  it,  that  those  familiar  with 
the  mosfc  recent  improvements  still  speak  of  their 
work  with  admiration.  "It  is  so  beautifully  fine," 
says  one,  "  that  it  looks  like  the  work  of  insects  or 
fairies."  Another  states  that  he  has  seen  an  entire 
dress  made  of  it  drawn  through  a  small  ring ;  that 
the  spinners  can  make  threads  so  fine  as  to  be  hardly 
discernible — that  you  can  not  feel  them  with  the  fin 
ger  ;  that  when  the  cloth  has  been  laid  on  the  grass 
to  bleach,  and  the  dew  has  fallen  on  it,  it  is  actually 
impossible  to  see  it,  justifying  the  designation  that 
has  been  applied  to  it — a  web  of  woven  wind ,  or  the 
condemnation  once  passed  upon  it  by  some  of  the 
manufacturers  interested  in  fabrics  of  a  coarser  sort, 
that  it  was  "  the  mere  shadow  of  a  commodity."  In 
the  course  of  innumerable  ages,  by  the  practice  of 
this  art  in  successive  generations,  so  exquisite  has  the 
sense  of  touch  in  the  Hindoo  spinner  become,  that  he 
can  extend  a  single  grain  of  cotton  into  a  yarn  twen- 


120  HINDOO  COTTON  MANUFACTURE. 

ty-nine  yards  in  length,  or  one  pound  into  more  than 
115  miles.  However,  it  must  be  added  that  the  au 
tomatic  engines  of  the  English  factories  have  excelled 
that  tenuity.  At  the  Great  Exhibition  there  was  a 
sample  answering  to  1026  miles.  In  India,  the  ma 
chinery  both  for  spinning  and  weaving  is  of  the  sim 
plest  kind,  the  personal  tact  of  the  operative  supply 
ing  every  want,  and  that  often  under  the  most  disad 
vantageous  circumstances.  Beneath  a  shed  or  under 
the  shade  of  a  tamarind -tree  the  Hindoo  fixes  his 
clumsy  loom,  with  every  drawback  from  the  oppress 
iveness  or  inclemency  of  the  weather.  There  is  in 
the  production  of  this  textile  fabric  something  con 
genial  to  his  habits ;  a  sedentary  life  is  in  correspond 
ence  to  the  climate,  and  his  personal  organization  is 
more  favorable  to  delicate  tact  than  to  muscular  ex 
ertion.  He  shows  little  disposition  to  avail  himself 
of  obvious  improvements  which  would  greatly  short 
en  his  labor,  preferring  to  work  in  the  same  way  that 
his  forefathers  did.  It  should  nevertheless  be  remem 
bered  that  the  spinning-wheel  is  his  invention,  and  it 
is  no  insignificant  improvement  on  the  old  spindle 
and  distaff.  With  all  the  disadvantage  of  this  men 
tal  carelessness  and  immobility,  the  Mohammedans 
managed  to  spread  the  Hindoo  cotton  manufacture 
into  the  Chinese  Empire ;  and  it  is  by  no  means  un 
interesting  to  notice,  as  showing  the  sameness  of  hu 
man  nature  in  all  countries,  that  this  intrusion  of  the 


EUROPEAN  COTTON  MANUFACTURE. 

cotton  manufacture  was  resisted  by  the  silk  interest 
among  the  Chinese  upon  the  same  principle  and  in 
the  same  way  as  by  the  woolen  interest  in  England. 
Indeed,  nearly  all  the  European  governments,  under 
the  influence  of  similar  motives,  either  restricted  or 
prohibited  the  use  of  cotton  goods ;  and  yet,  in  spite 
of  all  such  combinations,  legislation,  and  opposition, 
those  fabrics  have  forced  their  way  until  they  consti 
tute  the  chief  article  of  clothing  of  the  human  race. 

It  is  sometimes  remarked,  as  a  proof  of  the  inferior 
ity  of  the  Asiatics,  that  this  important  manufacture 
remained  among  them  undeveloped  and  unimproved 
for  more  than  four  thousand  years ;  whereas,  when 
the  English  took  it  up,  they  carried  it  in  less  than  a 
century  to  so  great  a  degree  of  perfection,  that  a  man 
could  do  more  work  in  a  day  than  he  had  formerly 
done  in  a  year.  Simultaneously  other  inventions  of 
the  most  momentous  interest  to  civilization  were  in 
troduced — the  Canal  system,  the  Steam-engine  in  all 
its  forms,  stationary  and  locomotive,  high  pressure 
and  low,  Eailroads,  the  development  of  the  Iron  man 
ufacture,  and  new  methods  for  rendering  all  kinds  of 
machinery  more  exact  in  construction  and  perfect  in 
operation. 

But  I  do  not  think  that  this  inertness  in  India  and 
this  activity  in  England  are  to  be  interpreted  in  the 
way  such  writers  suppose.  Doubtless  the  position  of 
women  in  the  social  system  of  India  had  no  little  to 


122        EUROPEAN  COTTON  MANUFACTURE. 

do  with,  the  result.  An  extensive  introduction  of 
machinery  never  fails  to  touch  domestic  life.  Even 
in  England  the  various  riots  attending  the  introduc 
tion  of  the  manufactures  were  mainly  incited  by  the 
apprehension  that  machinery  was  throwing  the  op 
eratives  out  of  work.  Extraneous  circumstances  thus 
not  only  arrest,  but  often  enough  destroy  human  occu 
pations.  It  is  upon  such  principles  that  we  must  ex 
plain  the  total  destruction  of  this  very  manufacture 
in  Spain  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Moors.  The 
Spanish  Christian  was  not  inferior  to  the  Spanish 
Mohammedan.  Our  reflections  on  the  Hindoos  for 
their  incapacity  in  these  improvements  are  of  about 
as  little  weight  as  were  those  of  the  woolen  weavers 
brought  over  to  England  by  Edward  III.  It  was 
said  that  the  English  knew  no  more  what  to  do  with 
wool  than  the  sheep  on  whose  backs  it  grew.  And 
this  was  on  the  eve  of  their  great  development  of 
that  branch  of  industry. 

To  the  Saracens  we  must  therefore  attribute  the 
introduction  of  cotton  and  the  cotton  manufacture 
into  Europe.  It  found  its  way  into  England  under 
circumstances  in  many  respects  interesting.  After 
the  capture  of  Antwerp  by  the  Duke  of  Parma  in 
1585,  great  numbers  of  workmen  fled  to  England  to 
escape  the  sanguinary  persecutions.  Among '  these 
were  many  cotton  artisans,  who  settled  in  Manches 
ter,  and  were  kindly  received  and  patronized  by  the 


THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM.  123 

authorities  of  that  town.  In  the  course  of  the  next 
hundred  and  fifty  years  the  manufacture  had  become 
firmly  established,  and  a  considerable  cotton  trade 
had  arisen  with  the  Levant.  In  the  early  part  of  the 
last  century  the  demand  for  these  goods  had  become 
so  considerable  that  hand-labor  had  begun  to  be  in 
sufficient  to  satisfy  it,  and  it  was  "necessary  to  resort 
to  machinery. 

In  succession  there  appeared  Wyatt's  invention  for 
spinning  by  pairs  of  rollers  turning  with  different 
velocities,  Paul's  rotary  carding  engine,  Arkwright's 
great  improvements,  Hargreaves's  jenny,  Crompton's 
mule,  and  many  other  contrivances  of  singular  power 
and  beauty. 

By  these  admirable  inventions  the  cotton  manufac 
ture  underwent  so  great  a  development  as  to  require 
an  entire  change  in  its  economical  management,  and 
hence  arose  the  Factory  System.  The  necessity  for 
this  was  due,  at  first,  partly  to  the  use  of  water-pow 
er  for  driving  machinery,  mills  springing  up  wherever 
suitable  water-power  existed ;  in  part,  also,  to  the  ob 
vious  saving  of  time,  trouble,  and  money  when  all  the 
operations  are  conducted  under  one  roof  and  under 
one  supervision,  instead  of  being  managed,  as  they 
formerly  "were,  in  a  disconnected  way,  in  cottages  at  a 
distance  from  one  another. 

Though  these  great  improvements  in  spinning  had 
taken  place,  the  cotton  manufacture  could  not  have 


124:  THE  FACTORY  SYSTEM. 

attained  its  present  surprising  extent  had  it  not  been 
for  the  contemporaneous  invention  of  the  steam-en 
gine  —  contemporaneous,  for  Watt's  first  patent  was 
taken  out  in  1769,  the  same  year  that  Arkwright 
patented  spinning  by  rollers.  Watt's  improvements 
chiefly  consisted  in  the  use  of  a  separate  condenser, 
and  the  replacement  of  atmospheric  pressure  by  that 
of  steam.  Still,  it  was  not  until  1790  that  the  steam- 
engine  was  introduced  into  factories,  and  hence  it  was 
not,  as  is  commonly  supposed,  the  cause  of  their  won 
derful  increase.  It  came,  however,  at  an  opportune 
moment,  its  use  in  this  application  being  nearly  coin 
cident  with  the  invention  of  the  dressing  machine  by 
Radcliffe,  and  the  power-loom  by  Cartwright. 

In  other  respects  there  were  many  happy  incidents. 
If  the  mechanical  department  of  the  cotton  manufac 
ture  received  great  advantages  from  the  invention  of 
the  steam-engine,  its  chemical  department  wa's  equal 
ly  favored  by  the  discovery  of  bleaching  by  chlorine, 
an  application  made  by  Berthollet  in  1785,  and 
brought  into  practical  use  by  Watt.  To  bleach  a 
piece  of  cotton  by  the  action  of  the  air  and  sun  had 
required  from  six  to  eight  months,  and  a  large  sur 
face  of  land  must  be  used  as  bleach-ifelds.  The  value 
of  land  in  the  vicinity  of  large  towns  offered  an  insu 
perable  obstacle  to  such  uses.  Much  of  the  products 
of  the  British  looms  was  therefore  sent  over  to  Hol 
land  to  be  whitened.  The  use  of  dilute  sulphuric 


EUROPEAN  IMPROVEMENTS.  125 

acid  by  Dr.  Home,  of  Edinburgh,  in  the  stead  of  sour 
milk,  hitherto  employed  in  the  operation,  reduced  the 
time  greatly,  but  still  it  required  three  or  four  months. 
By  chlorine  the  operation  could  lie  completed  in  the 
course  of  a  few  hours,  the  fibre  being  perfectly  whiten 
ed,  its  coloring  material  so  thoroughly  destroyed  as  to 
be  altogether  incapable  of  restoration.  It  was  at  first 
used  as  a  *watery  solution,  subsequently  as  chloride 
of  lime.  Nor  were  the  new  chemical  operations  re 
stricted  to  the  bleaching  of  this  fabric.  Calico  print 
ing,  an  art  practiced  many  thousand  years  ago  among 
the  Egyptians,  as  describecl  by  Pliny,  was  also  per 
fected.  The  Arabs  had  introduced  printing  by  blocks 
of  wood,  an  advance  on  the  Indian  operation  of  paint 
ing  by  hand.  The  great  European  improvement  was 
printing  by  cylinders,  introduced  by  Bell  in  1785. 

As  the  result  of  these  various  inventions,  the  cot 
ton  manufacture  in  much  less  than  a  century  had 
reached  such  an  extension  as  might  almost  appear  in 
credible.  Mr.  Baines,  writing  in  1833,  estimates  the 
total  annual  value  of  the  manufacture  at  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  dollars ;  the  number  of 
persons  supported  by  it  at  one  and  a  half  million ; 
the  length  of  yarn  spun  at  nearly  five  thousand  mil 
lions  of  miles — sufficient  to  pass  round  the  earth's 
circumference  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  times 
— sufficient  to  reach  fifty-one  times  from  the  earth  to 
the  sun.  "It  would  encircle  the  earth's  orbit  eight 


126  EUROPEAN  IMPROVEMENTS. 

and  a  half  tinies^  The  wrought  fabrics  of  cotton  ex 
ported  in  one  year  would  form  a  girdle  for  the  globe 
passing  eleven  times  round  the  equator.  The  re 
ceipts  of  the  manufacturers  and  merchants  for  this 
one  production  of  national  industry  are  equal  to  two 
thirds  the  whole  public  revenue  of  the  kingdom.  To 
complete  the  wonder,  this  manufacture  is  the  creation 
of  the  genius  of  a  few  humble  mechanics.  It  has 
sprung  up  from  insignificance  to  its  present  magni 
tude  within  little  more  than  half  a  century,  and  it  is 
still  advancing  with  a  rapidity  of  increase  that  defies 
all  calculation  of  what  it  shall  be  in  future  ages." 

But  such  a  vast  improvement  in  this  particular 
manufacture  necessarily  implied  other  improvements, 
especially  in  locomotion  and  the  transmission  of  intel 
ligence.  The  peddler's  pack,  the  pack-horse,  and  the 
cart,  became  altogether  inadequate,  and  in  succession 
were  replaced  by  the  canal  system  of  the  last  century, 
and  by  the  steamboats  and  railroads  of  this.  The  en 
gineering  triumphs  of  Brindley,  whose  canals  were 
carried  across  valleys,  over  or  through  mountains, 
above  rivers,  exacted  unbounded  admiration  in  his 
own  times,  and  yet  they  were  only  the  precursors  of 
the  railroad  engineering  of  ours.  As  it  was,  the  canal 
system  proved  to  be  inadequate  to  the  want,  and 
oaken  railroads,  which  had  long  been  used  in  quar 
ries  and  coal-pits  with  the  locomotive  invented  by 
Murdock  in  1784,  were  destined  to  supplant  them. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  MECHANICAL  PHILOSOPHY.        127 

It  does  not  fall  within  my*  present  purpose  to  relate 
how  the  locomotion  of  the  whole  civilized  world  was 
revolutionized,  not  by  the  act  of  some  great  states 
man,  or  through  the  power  of  some  mighty  sovereign 
or  soldier,  but  by  George  Stevenson,  once  a  locomo 
tive  stoker,  who,  by  the  invention  of  the  tubular  boil 
er,  and  the  ingenious  device  of  blowing  the  chimney 
instead  of  the  fire,  converted  the  locomotive  of  the 
last  century,  which  at  its  utmost  speed  could  travel 
seven  miles  an  hour,  into  the  locomotive  of  this,  which 
can  accomplish  seventy.  I  need  not  dwell  on  the 
collateral  improvements — the  introduction  of  iron  for 
the  rails,  metallic  bridges,  tubular  bridges,  viaducts, 
and  all  the  prodigies  of  the  existing  system  of  rail 
way  engineering. 

It  would  demand  a  work  of  many  volumes  to  fur 
nish  a  full  and  satisfactory  description  of  the  indus 
trial  improvements  of  the  last  century ;  those  we 
have  been  considering  are,  however,  quite  sufficient 
to  give  us  a  clear  appreciation  of  the  direction  in 
which,  during  that  period,  the  movement  tended,  and 
the  extent  to  which  it  advanced.  All  that  was  thus 
taking  place  was  the  necessary  result  of  the  material 
philosophy  of  the  preceding  age ;  the  carrying  into 
practice  the  mechanical  ideas  introduced  by  the 
schools  of  Galileo  and  Newton,  and  these  were  the 
direct  descendants  of  the  Spanish  Mohammedans; 
for  the  discoveries  of  those  philosophers  had  not 


128        DEVELOPMENT  OF  MECHANICAL  PHILOSOPHY. 

only  been  popularized  and  brought  down  to  the  com 
mon  apprehension,  but  a  growing  taste  for  such  pur 
suits  had  very  generally  arisen.  We  see  this  in  the 
many  modifications  of  standard  experiments  in  nat 
ural  philosophy,  as  those  connected  with  the  air- 
pump,  and  interesting  or  amusing  applications  of  elec 
tricity.  The  books  of  those  times  are  full  of  interest 
ing  instances  of  the  kind,  some  of  which  are  still  em 
ployed  in  our  lecture-rooms,  or  are-  retained  in  our 
elementary  works.  Such  a  taste  for  experimental  ar 
rangements  and  mechanical  contrivances  was  of  course 
powerfully  invigorated  when  there  was  added  an  ex 
pectation  of  gaining  thereby  immense  wealth.  It 
was  the  same  principle  which  had  formerly  offered 
an  incentive  to  the  alchemists,  now,  however,  direct 
ed  to  objects  more  easily  comprehended,  and  occupy 
ing  itself  with  principles  readily  understood.  If  we 
were  to  record  all  the  ingenious  contrivances  origina 
ting  among  men  of  humble  station  and  means  during 
the  last  century  for  the  purpose  of  solving  one  me 
chanical  problem  —  that  of  the  perpetual  motion— 
they  would  form  quite  a  considerable  volume.  When 
such  tastes  had  become  common,  it  was  not  at  all 
surprising  that  they  should  be  directed  to  ordinary 
objects  or  the  operations  of  daily  life,  and  that  an  in 
genious  cottager,  who  supported  his  family  by  spin 
ning,  should  turn  his  talent  to  account  by  inventing 
a  machine  with  which  one  person  could  spin  eight  or 


POLITICAL  RESULTS  OF  MACHINERY.  129 

ten  threads  at  a  time  instead  of  one,  as  by  the  old- 
fashioned,  time-honored  spinning-wheel. 

Moreover,  when  it  appeared,  from  the  case  of  Ark- 
wright  and  others,  that  success  in  this  particular  di 
rection  was  the  high  road  to  wealth,  public  consid 
eration,  and  honor,  the  realization  of  riches  greater 
than  the  wildest  tales  of  the  alchemists  had  ever  fa 
bled,  an  impetus  was  given,  arising  from  the  strongest 
passion  which  can  animate  man.  It  signified  noth 
ing  if  of  the  projectors  and  inventors  ninety-nine  out 
of  a  hundred  miserably  failed;  the  splendid  success 
of  the  hundredth  was  encouragement  enough,  and 
thus  from  year  to  year  the  number  of  inventions  and 
inventors  kept  on  perpetually  increasing,  no  human 
pursuit,  no  object  of  human  interest  escaping,  and  so 
it  continues  to  our  own  time. 

In  this  intellectual  activity  lay  the  essential  prog 
ress  of  the  last  century.  Connected  with  it  there 
were  certain  collateral  incidents  of  no  little  signifi 
cance.  For  the  first  time  in  her  history,  overpopula 
tion  began  to  be  heard  of  in  England.  Even  at  a 
period  much  later,  the  bearing  of  these  things  was  al 
together  misunderstood  by  men  of  great  intellectual 
powers  and  of  eminent  position.  Comparing  France 
with  England  in  the  struggle  in  which  he  was  en 
gaged,  Napoleon  said,  "  We  must  overpower  her  in 
the  end,  for  we  have  a  vastly  greater  population." 
He  overlooked  the  fact,  which  at  last  settled  the  con- 

I 


130  POLITICAL  RESULTS  OF  MACHINERY. 

test,  that  her  steam-engines  were  representing  at  that 
moment  a  population  of  thirty  additional  millions  of 
adult  men;  nay,  more,  men  who  consumed  nothing 
and  produced  every  thing — men  whose  only  want  was 
a  little  oil  and  coal,  but  who  could  do  without  food 
and  clothing,  who  were  indeed  ready  to  find  clothing 
for  the  whole  world,  who  could  labor  night  and  day, 
who  required  no  sleep,  and  could  not  be  fatigued. 
It  was  not  the  armies  at  Waterloo,  but  these  iron 
men  whom  he  so  strangely  overlooked  in  his  calcula 
tion,  that  terminated  the  contest  against  him.  It  was 
through  these  children  of  Watt  that,  after  all  her  tax 
ation,  all  her  subsidies,  all  her  extravagance,  all  her 
losses,  all  her  debt,  all  the  .inconceivable  fatuity  of 
her  politicians,  England  came  out  of  that  deadly  con 
flict  richer,  greater,  more  vigorous  and  powerful,  than 
she  had  ever  been  before. 

If  mechanical  invention  has  made  so  profound  an 
impression  on  the  national  life  of  Europe,  it  has  done 
the  same  in  America.  In  the  political  consequences 
that  have  ensued  from  it,  Whitney's  gin,  invented  in 
1793,  does  not  yield  in  importance  to  the  greatest  of 
English  inventions.  The  vast  development  of  the 
cotton  culture  in  the  Southern  States,  the  increased 
value  of  negro  slave  labor,  have  been  its  immediate 
results.  The  product  of  cotton  furnished  from  those 
states  in  1856  was  estimated  at  seven  eighths  that  of 


NEGRO  SLAVERY.  131 

the  whole  world.     It  amounted  in  1860  to  more  than 
four  millions  and  a  half  of  bales  (4,675,770). 

The  first  African  slaves  brought  to  America  were 
imported  in  a  Dutch  vessel,  which  landed  them  at 
Jamestown,  in  Virginia,  in  1620.  The  cultivation  of 
cotton  is  stated  to  have  been  commenced  the  follow 
ing  year,  and  from  this  time  the  supply  of  negroes 
continually  increased.  It  is  estimated  that  in  the 
course  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  years,  about  three 
hundred  thousand  slaves  had  been  brought  from  Af 
rica.  An  attempt  was  also  made  to  reduce  the  na 
tive  Indians  to  bondage,  but  it  met  with  but  little 
success.  They  did  not  submit  to  their  fate  with  the 
resignation  of  the  blacks.  Indeed,  at  a  much  later 
period,  it  was  a  subject  of  remark  on  the  plantations 
that  the  slave  families  in  which  there  was  an  infusion 
of  Indian  blood  were  characterized  by  their  treacher 
ous  and  revengeful  spirit.  Notwithstanding  the  prof 
its  arising  from  their  labor,  there  was  a  growing  dis 
position  to  put  some  restraint  on  the  importation  of 
slaves.  Several  of  the  colonies  remonstrated  against 
the  trade,  but,  in  opposition  to  their  wishes,  the  moth 
er  country  encouraged  it.  In  I774«the  Continental 
Congress  resolved  that  the  importation  should  be 
stopped ;  but  in  1789,  at  the  formation  of  the  Consti 
tution,  Congress  was  prohibited  from  interdicting  it 
until  1808,  when  it  was  abolished.  Ten  years  previ 
ously  (1798),  Georgia  had  set  the  example  of  its  pro- 


132 


NEGRO  SLAVERY. 


hibition.     In  1820,  Congress  passed  a  law  declaring 
the  slave-trade  to  be  piracy. 

From  evidence  which  necessarily  must  be  very  im 
perfect,  and  therefore  unreliable,  it  has  been  estimated 
that  forty  millions  of  slaves  have  been  taken  from 
Africa.  The  number  imported  into  the  American 
colonies  up  to  1776  has  been  set  down  at  three  hund 
red  thousand.  The  following  table  gives  the  slave 
population  from  1790  to  1860 : 


Year. 

Slave  Population. 

Year. 

Slave  Population. 

1790 

697,879 

1830 

2,009,043 

1800 

893,041 

1840 

2,487,455 

1810 

1,191,364 

1850 

3,204,313 

1820 

1,538,038 

1860 

3,952,801 

From  this  it  appears  that  the  increments  are  not 
quite  equal  to  what  they  should  have  been  if  meas 
ured  by  the  standard  of  the  white  races  on  the  ad 
mission  of  an  unrestrained  generative  action.  The 
resistances  which  have  kept  the  number  down  ary 
undoubtedly  to  be  sought  for  in  the  unfavorable  so 
cial  circumstances  of  Southern  slave  life.  It  is  to  be 
observed  that  the  increase  for  the  decade  ending  in 
1840  is  below  tke  mean. 

The  degree  of  blood  contamination  undergone  by 
the  negroes  is  shown  by  the  number  of  the  mulattoes 
being  one  ninth  that  of  the  blacks.  As  might  be  ex 
pected,  the  number  of  free  mulattoes  is  greater  than 
that  of  free  blacks.  The  fact  is  a  testimony  to  the 
force  of  instinctive  parental  feelings. 


NEGRO  SLAVERY.  133 

* 

In  slave  life  the  proportion  of  women  to  men  is 
above  the  European  mean.  The  subjoined  table 
shows  the  number  of  women  to  100  men  in  the 
places  designated: 


New  England  States .101.41 

Southern 97.04 

Middle 95.88 

Southwestern 91.22 

Northwestern 91.02 

Slaves  in  Southern 95.90 

Europe 94.34 


The  mean  for  the  entire  white  American  population 
is  about  95.31.  The  ratio  of  the  female  slaves  is 
therefore  slightly  above  that  of  the  white  women. 
The  close  approach  of  the  numbers  is  a  very  interest 
ing  physiological  fact. 

A  population  of  four  millions  of  colored  slaves  pre 
sented,  at  the  commencement  of  the  civil  war,  a  so 
cial  element  that  could  not  be  regarded  but  with  the 
most  profound  interest.  Experience  has,  however, 
shown  how  great  a  change  has  been  impressed  upon 
the  African  character  by  Climate,  Blood-admixture, 
and  Ideas.  The  course  these  persons '  have  taken 
must  be  admitted  by  all  impartial  observers  as  in 
the  highest  degree  honorable  to  them. 

To  the  foregoing  instances,  which  serve  as  illustra 
tions  of  the  general  principle  we  have  under  consid- 


134       ANCIENT  COLONIZATION  OF  EUROPE. 

eration,  may  very  profitably  be  added  some  of  the 
recent  discoveries  respecting  the  settlement  of  the 
European  continent  by  its  present  dominant  race— 
the  Indo-European — heretofore  briefly  referred  to 
(page  40).  These  will  afford  an  opportunity  not 
only  of  showing  the  precision  of  such  pre-historic  re- 
searches  in  the  hands  of  modern  critics,  but  also  of 
indicating  the  general  principles  of  the  production 
and  dissemination  of  a  population,  of  the  stages  of 
its  progress  in  civilization,  and  of  the  modes  by 
which  its  manner  of  life  may  be  affected. 

Attempts  have  often  been  made  to  discover  the 
primitive  history  of  nations  through  the  nature  and 
structure  of  their  languages ;  for  since  to  each  well- 
marked  group  of  men  there  appertains  a  specific  form 
of  speech,  historical  relationships  may  be  detected 
through  similarities  of  language,  and  this  both  by 
the  occurrence  of  similar  roots  in  their  vocabularies 
and  by  analogies  in  their  grammar.  A  language,  be 
ing  the  creation  of  a  group  of  men,  is  developed  with 
their  development,  declines  with  their  decay,  and  dies 
out  with  their  inevitable  extinction,  unless,  as  in  a 
few  cases,  such  as  the  Latin,  the  Pali,  the  Prakrit,  it 
is  retained  by  the  learned  for  the  literature  it  con 
tains,  or,  through  ecclesiastical  policy,  is  made  sa 
cred.  In  some  respects,  therefore,  the  history  of  a 
language  corresponds  to  that  of  the  nation  by  which 
it  is  spoken;  though  the  general  mechanism  of  all 


ANCIENT  COLONIZATION  OF  EUROPE.  135 

languages  must  present  certain  features  in  common, 
because  those  features  depend  on  the  mechanism  of 
the  human  mind,  which  is  every  where  of  the  same 
nature. 

From  a  critical  study  of  any  existing  form  of 
speech,  the  more  important  connections  and  incidents 
of  the  people  by  whom  it  is  spoken  may  be  detected 
—a  criticism  which  must,  however,  be  pursued  in  a 
very  guarded  manner,  and  with  a  clear  perception  of 
these  accidental,  or  rather  natural  coincidences,  both 
as  respects  the  names  of  things  and  grammatical 
structure.  It  has  often  been  suggested  to  Compara 
tive  Philologists  that  birds  in  distant  countries,  which 
could  never  have  had  any  communication  with  one  an 
other,  sing  not  only  the  same  note,  but  also  the  same 
strain;  and  that  a  like  thing  may  be  observed  of 
cats  and  dogs,  their  natural  intonations  being,  how 
ever,  liable  to  change  through  the  circumstances  of 
their  life.  Thus  the  wild  dog  never  barks,  and  when 
the  domestic  dog  relapses  into  the  wild  state,  it  is  af 
firmed  that  he  loses  therewith  the  habit  of  barking. 

In  man,  similitudes  of  expression  are  liable  to  oc 
cur,  even  in  distant  places  that  have  never  been  in 
intercommunication,  particularly  in  the  case  of  such 
sounds  as  have  an  instinctive  origin,  as  those  of  weep 
ing,  laughter,  the  exclamations  of  pain,  surprise,  joy. 
Attention  being  paid  to  this,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that,  by  an  examination  of  the  language  of  a  people, 


136  ANCIENT  COLONIZATION  OF  EUROPE. 

many  facts  in  its  history  may  be  detected,  as  its  in 
termingling  and  conflicts  with  other  people,  though 
in  this  respect  the  impression  of  languages  upon  each 
other  follows  the  law  observed  to  hold  good  in  the 
impression  of  races  upon  each  other,  the  predominant 
race  apparently  extinguishing  the  other,  unless  the 
action  should  have  been  very  profound. 

From  such  evidence,  it  appears  that,  long  before 
the  Historic  times,  the  Indo-Europeans,  leaving  their 
original  country  in  Asia,  migrated  through  Europe  in 
a  northwesterly  direction,  pressing  before  them  the 
aborigines  of  that  continent,  who  receded  until  they 
were  stopped  by  the  sea,  the  Finnish  and  Basque  di 
alects  being  among  the  vestiges  of  that  ancient  pop 
ulation.  These  dialects  offer  indubitable  *evidence 
of  the  small  advance  in  civilization  those  people  had 
made,  and  of  their  mediocre  intellect.  That  the 
Basque  language  was  in  intermediate  times  spoken 
from  the,  Alps  to  the  west  of  Spain,  appears  to  be 
satisfactorily  established  from  the  names  which  places 
and  other  geographical  objects  still  bear.  The  im 
perfect  communication  kept  up  between  different 
parts  of  the  invading  column,  as  they  began  to  set 
tle  and  to  multiply  in  the  conquered  countries,  is 
shown  by  the  diversity  of  speech,  and  the  introduc 
tion  of  new  words  occurring  in  regions  at  no  very 
great  distance  from  each  other.  Thus  we  may  infer 
the  chief  features  of  the  old  belief  from  the  names  of 


INDIGENOUS  IDEAS.  137 

certain  Greek  and  Latin  gods,  and  their  connection 
with  those  of  India.  For  instance,  the  God  of  the 
Sky  was  called  by  the  Greeks  Zens-pater,  by  the  Lat 
ins  Jupiter,  and  in  the  Veda  Dyauspiter.  A  great 
many  of  the  classical  legends  are  also  to  be  found  in 
the  sacred  books  of  India. 

It  may  also  be  remarked  that  this  irruption  of  the 
Indo-Europeans  took  place  to  the  southeast  as  well  as 
to  the  northwest.  Invading  Hindostan,  they  forced 
the  aborigines  thereof  toward  the  sea-coast,  and  even 
compelled  them  to  escape  to  the  islands  beyond.  Be 
tween  these  expelled  people  and  the  Australian  pop 
ulation,  as  well  as  the  aborigines  of  Europe,  some 
singular  connections  have  been  traced. 

The  religion  of  the  Autochthons  of  Europe  was  a 
mere  worship  of  Fetishes,  and  such  deities  as  they 
had  were  representatives  of  natural  objects.  Proba 
bly  there  were  no  individuals  set  apart  as  priests  and 
no  organized  ceremonial.  As  ever  will  be  the  case 
under  such  circumstances,  the  base  native  religion  im 
parted  some  of  its  features  to  its  conquering  invader, 
the  traces  of  which  may  not  only  be  recognized  in  the 
theological  systems  of  Greece  and  Rome,  but  have 
even  plainly  descended  to  our  own  times,  and  that 
not  in  mere  rural  superstitions,  but  extending  to 
those  of  a  far  more  important  kind.  Of  such  an  ef 
fect  we  see  a  striking  example  in  the  case  of  Ancient 
Egypt,  in  which  the  Fetish  worship  and  adoration  of 


138  INDIGENOUS  IDEAS. 

animals  by  the  native  Africans  became  inseparably 
commingled  with  the  theological  conceptions  of  the 
conquering  intruders  long  before  the  epoch  of  Moses, 
and  the  Pharaonic  religion,  at  once  noble  and  base, 
philosophical  and  barbarous,  was  the  result. 

There  is  nothing  strange  in  the  perpetuation  of 
ideas  and  modes  of  thought  through  many  thousand 
years.  Their  origin  is  in  the  very  organization  of 
men ;  for  it  is  through  organization  that  isolated  na 
tions  manifest  a  proclivity  to  certain  mental  concep 
tions  and  even  modes  of  expression.  The  negro  is 
essentially  a  Fetish  worshiper — a  believer  in  witch 
craft  and  in  the  efficacy  of  charms.  Such  ideas  and 
the  modes  of  expressing  them  are  found  wherever 
that  low  grade  of  humanity  occurs,  occupying  a  zone 
across  all  Africa  and  the  vast  expanse  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean ;  nay,  even  all  round  the  world,  if  the  black 
populations  of  America  are  included ;  for  these  in  the 
United  States,  in  the  midst  of  moral,  religious,  Chris 
tian  communities,  are  still  full  of  their  African  ideas. 
I  believe  that  if  it  were  possible  for  a  new  race  of 
autochthonic  negroes  to  arise,  it  would  inevitably  fall 
into  these  delusions;  as  certainly  as,  if  there  were  new- 
autochthons  of  the  yellow  race,  they  would  spontane 
ously  and  inevitably  invent  a  monosyllabic  language. 
These  are  the  results  of  organization.  They  make 
their  appearance  wherever  the  element  of  that  organ 
ization  occurs ;  or,  to  use  a  common  though  perhaps 


INDIGENOUS  SUPERSTITIONS.  139 

incorrect  expression,  they  descend  with  the  blood. 
The  Finnish  peasant  still  has  faith  in  incantations 
and  charms ;  he  believes  that  there  are  witches  who 
can  ride  on  a  stick  to  the  moon,  and  cause  her  eclipse 
by  their  nocturnal  invocations;  that  there  are  men 
who  can  still  sell  to  the  sailor  a  favorable  wind,  and 
to  the  rustic  a  refreshing  shower.  It  was  this  ele 
ment  in  the  blood  of  Europe  that  made  the  barbarian 
races,  after  the  death  of  the  Latin  tongue,  such  a 
ready  receptacle  for  all  kinds  of  imposture;  that 
gave  faith  in  relics  and  force  to  fetishisms;  that 
turned  the  minister  of  the  Gospel  into  a  rain-maker 
and  wind-raiser,  as  if  the  unchangeable  and  eternal 
laws  of  nature  might  be  suspended  or  modified  at  his 
prayer.  It  is  this  which,  even  in  our  times,  perpetu 
ates  the  by  no  means  insignificant  traces  of  these  an 
cient  delusions.  What  is  thus  planted  in  the  very 
bodily  structure,  it  is  hard,  if  not  impossible,  alto 
gether  to  tear  up  by  the  roots.  Here  and  there, 
whenever  a  favorable  moment  occurs,  it  shoots  forth 
again. 

Moreover,  modern  critics  have  remarked  that,  as 
nations  are  thus  distinguished  by  language,  so  like 
wise  they  are  by  their  culture  of  art,  some  imitating, 
some  inventing,  but  others  being  incapable  of  ex-  * 
pressing  their,  ideas  either  by  the  pencil  or  in  stone. 
The  mental  physiognomy  of  a  people  is  thus  so  com 
pletely  shadowed  forth,  that  from  the  style  of  a  work 


140  SPONTANEOUS  ART. 

we  instantly  detect  its  origin.  The  rigid,  motionless 
Egyptian  forms  betray  to  us  their  authors,  and  this 
irrespective  of  what  might  be  termed  national  blun 
ders,  such  as  the  front  view  of  the  eye  in  profiles,  and 
the  false  position  of  the  ear.  And  as  none  of  the 
surrounding  nations  ever  adopted  the  language  of 
Egypt,  so  none  ever  adopted  her  hieroglyphic  sys 
tem  of  writing  or  the  peculiarities  of  her  art.  Such 
as  they  were  they  remained  in  their  birthplace,  and 
for  thousands  of  years  were  perfectly  stationary,  mak 
ing  not  the  slightest  exhibition  of  an  advance.  The 
adjacent  Shemitic  race  possessed  no  tendency  to  pic 
torial  expression,  their  theological  systems  forbidding 
the  making  of  graven  forms,  though  this  injunction 
perhaps  arose  from  their  insensibility  to  the  embodi 
ment  of  the  beautiful ;  for  it  may  be  doubted  wheth 
er  it  is  possible,  when  a  tendency  to  pictorial  expres 
sion  exists,  to  restrain  it  by  legal  penalties. 

But  how  different  it  was  with  the  Indo-Europeans, 
a  race  which,  without  hesitation,  plunged  into  the 
depths  of  metaphysical  speculation,  and  created  sys 
tems  of  Philosophy  false  and  true.  While,  among 
the  Egyptians,  many  centuries  of  that  leisure  which 
arises  from  a  profound  political  repose  were  never  il- 
*  lustrated  by  the  improvement  of  Art,  the  apathy  of 
Africa  perfectly  neutralizing  all  vestiges  of  the  gen 
ius  of  that  ancient  conquering  race,  who  first  brought 
civilization  to  the  banks  of  the  Nile — while,  also, 


ART  IN  EUROPE. 

among  the  Shemites,  wealth,  luxury,  a  life  of  ease, 
never  led  to  a  spontaneous  invention  of  even  the  first 
principles  of  art,  very  different  was  it  with  the  Indo- 
Europeans,  whose  mental  proclivities  are  every  where 
manifested  in  architecture  and  sculpture.  It  was, 
however,  th«  Hellenic  branch  of  that  race  who  car 
ried  Art  to  the  highest  pitch  to  which  it  has  ever 
yet  attained.  Commencing  with  imperfect  begin 
nings,  we  see  how,  among  the  Greeks,  it  soon  gained 
a  great  expansive  force,  rising  degree  by  degree  to 
the  embodiment  of  those  exquisite  conceptions  of 
which  the  sculptures  of  the  Parthenon  are  the  wit 
nesses,  and  gaining  so  intense  a  vitality  as  to  sur 
vive  Roman  conquest  and  oppression.  It  was  its 
noble  peculiarity  that,  basing  itself  on  a  strict  an 
thropomorphism,  it  carried  out  with  a  rigorous  con 
sistency  that  principle.  The  remark  is  perfectly  true, 
that  while  the  Oriental  artist  expressed  his  ideas  of 
strength  or  swiftness  by  giving  to  his  statue  a  mul 
titude  of  arms  or  of  limbs,  and  thereby  made  a  mon 
ster,  the  Greek,  true  to  his  principle  and  true  to  man, 
developed  with  exquisite  tact  those  human  features 
with  which  such  qualities  are  connected.  His  statue 
was  the  ideal  conception  of  whatever  there  is  in  man 
essential  to  strength,  or  majesty,  or  beauty,  carried 
into  material  execution,  and  prefiguring  to  us  the 
forms  which  we  should  expect  that  even  God  him 
self  would  have  produced  had  he  been  pleased  to  ren- 


142  ART  IN  EUROPE. 

der  those  qualities  incarnate.  The  Greek  made  no 
monsters,  but  human  forms  of  transcendent  perfec 
tion.  It  has  been  affirmed  that  this  intense  idealism 
rendered  him  incapable  of  the  execution  of  portraits, 
which  are  best  made  by  men  of  a  realistic  turn.  His 
influence  in  imparting  to  others  his  own  capability  in 
this  respect  depended  on  their  natural  approach  to 
his  own  mental  peculiarity.  Greek  art  accompanied 
Greek  blood ;  and  as  the  latter  was  eliminated  from 
races  with  whom  it  had  been  mingled,  and  who  had 
thereby  gained  the  power  of  Greek  expression,  so  do 
their  works  exhibit  declining  stages,  and  eventually 
become  barbarous  and  rude. 

Such  considerations  indicate  that  from  a  study  of 
the  works  of  art  of  nations,  as  from  a  study  of  the 
nature  and  structure  of  their  languages,  incidents  in 
their  history  may  with  certainty  be  determined ;  con 
clusions  which,  when  they  otherwise  accord  with  the 
subsequent  career  of  such  people,  and  in  the  determ 
ination  of  which,  if  sufficient  care  and  skill  have  been 
employed,  may  be  received  as  indubitable,  although 
they  may  relate  to  pre-historic  times. 

Migrating -thus  from  Central  Asia,  the  column  of 
invaders  destined  to  give  birth  to  the  permanent  pop 
ulation  of  Europe  encountered,  in  the  new  seats  to 
which  they  gradually  advanced,  many  diversities  of 
climate.  In  accordance  with  the  principles  set  forth 
on  foregoing  pages,  they  thereby  underwent  physio- 


CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  UNITY.         143 

logical  changes  in  complexion  and  bodily  construc 
tion.     Various  national  types  were  thus  produced. 

He  who  accepts  the  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the 
human  race — that  is,  its  origination  from  one  primor 
dial  pair — must,  in  view  of  the  numerous  modified 
forms  of  men  now  dispersed  all  over  the  surface  of 
the  earth,  assign  an  almost  paramount  control  to  cli 
mate  and  to  modes  of  life;  but  the  conclusion  to 
which  he  is  compelled,  if  broadly  stated,  would 
doubtless  be  very  reluctantly  received.  Its  appar 
ent  extravagance  may,  however,  serve  to  give  empha 
sis  to  the  physiological  principle  involved ;  for  on 
those  principles  it  would  follow  that  if  the  life  of  a 
man  could  be  prolonged  through  many  centuries,  and 
he  were  to  occupy  it  in  making  a  journey  over  the 
earth  from  the  Arctic  to  the  Antarctic  Circle,  though 
he  might  have  been  perfectly  white  at  first,  his  com 
plexion  would  in  succession  pass  through  every  de 
gree  of  darkness,  and  by  the  time  he  had  reached  the 
equator,  toward  the  middle  of  his  life,  he  would  be 
perfectly  black.  Continuing  his  journey,  his  color 
would  lighten  as  he  proceeded,  and  on  his  reaching 
the  Antarctic  he  would  become  pale  again,  all  these 
changes  occurring  without  any  loss  of  his  personal 
identity.  Moreover,  in  this  his  progress,  supposing 
that  his  mode  of  life,  as  regards  food  and  comfort, 
was  such  as  natural  conditions  suggest,  even  his 
skull  would  vary,  and  with  it  his  intellectual  powers. 


144         CONSEQUENCES  OF  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  UNITY. 

His  forehead,  reclining  at  the  outset,  would  undergo 
rectification  as  he  slowly  advanced  to  more  genial 
climes;  the  facial  angle  enlarging  and  reaching  a 
maximum  at  the  time  of  his  residence  in  the  tem 
perate  zone,  but  diminishing  again,  and  his  coun 
tenance  becoming  baser,  as  he  approached  the  equa 
tor,  the  receding  aspect  being  then  for  the  second 
time  assumed.  Still  passing  onward  toward  the 
south,  the  facial  angle  wxmld  again  enlarge,  the  skull 
re-rectifying,  the  intellectual  powers  expanding,  and 
this  condition  attaining  its  perfection  in  the  midst 
of  the  south  temperate  zone,  a  relapse  ensuing  as  the 
Antarctic  Circle  was  gained,  and  there,  for  the  third 
time,  the  reclining  skull  being  assumed.  Nor  is  this 
all ;  for  if,  in  this  his  career,  children  were  born  to 
him,  they  would  be  of  every  shade  of  color  and  of 
every  form  of  skull,  for  such  existing  physical  pe 
culiarities  are  capable  of  hereditary  transmission.  I 
have  said  that  this  illustration  may  be  supposed  ex 
travagant  ;  philosophically,  however,  on  the  doctrine 
referred  to,  it  is  not  so ;  for  what  else  than  such  an 
imaginary  prolonged  individual  life  is  the  life  of  a 
race  ?  and  what  more  has  thus  occurred  to  the  imag 
inary  traveler  than  has  actually  happened  to  the  hu 
man  family  ? 

If  such  are  the  effects  that  would  ensue  to  an  emi 
grant  slowly  passing  along  a  meridional  track,  the 
case  would  be  quite  different  if  the  movement  were 


ORIGIN  OF  EUROPEAN  RACES.  14-5 

along  a  parallel  of  latitude.  In  this  direction  the  va 
riations  of  climate  are  far  less  marked,  and  depend 
much  more  on  geographical  than  on  astronomical 
causes.  In  emigrations  of  this  kind  there  is  never 
that  rapid  change  of  aspect,  complexion,  and  intel 
lectual  power  which  must  occur  in  the  other.  Thus, 
though  the  mean  temperature  of  Europe  increases 
from  Poland  to  France,  chiefly  through  the  influence 
of  the  great  Atlantic  current  transferring  heat  from 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  tropical  ocean,  that  rise  is 
far  less  than  what  would  be  encountered  on  passing 
through  the  same  distance  to  the  South.  By  the 
arts  of  civilization  man  can  much  more  easily  avoid 
the  difficulties  arising  from  variations  along  a  paral 
lel  of  latitude  than  those  upon  a  meridian,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  in  that  case  those  variations  are 
less. 

The  Indo-European  emigrating  body,  thus  forcibly 
intruding  itself  into  every  region  of  Europe,  not  only 
came  under  the  influence  of  the  laws  of  Climate,  but 
also  of  those  laws  that  determine  the  increase  and 
diminution  of  Population ;  for  though,  doubtless,  the 
birth  and  death  of  every  human  being  is,  in  a  relig 
ious  sense,  the  appointment  of  Heaven,  politically  the 
subject  has  to  be  regarded  from  a  less  dignified  point 
of  view.  Population  is  determined  by  Law. 

The  population  of  old  countries  exhibits  secular 
variations,  sometimes  increasing  and  sometimes  di- 

K 


146  THEORY  OF  POPULATION. 

minishing.  These  variations  often  stand  in  such  a 
connection  with  political  events  as  to  be  plainly 
their  consequences.  The  population  of  the  whole 
Roman  Empire  was  prodigiously  affected  by  the  in 
troduction  of  Christianity ;  that  of  Italy  was  reduced 
by  the  wars  of  Justinian.  The  north  of  Africa  was 
almost  depopulated  by  the  effects  of  theological  quar 
rel's,- but  it  was  restored  again  by  the  influence  of 
Mohammedanism.  The  introduction  of  the  feudal 
system  put  a  premium  on  the  production  of  men,  and 
accordingly  vast  numbers  appeared.  The  Crusades 
gave  rise  to  a  diminution.  From  the  eleventh  to  the 
sixteenth  century,  during  five  hundred  years,  the  pop 
ulation  of  England  did  not  double ;  but  in  fifty  years 
after  1790,  it  doubled  in  spite  of  great  wars;  and 
that  this  was  owing  to  a  local  cause  is  clear,  from  the 
simultaneously  stationary  condition  of  many  other 
countries. 

Owing  to  the  diminution  of  causes  which  will 
presently  be  explained  as  resisting  agencies,  the  an 
nual  increase  of  the  United  States  in  population  has 
been  nearly  three  times  as  much  as  that  of  Prussia, 
including  her  gains  from  the  partition  of  Poland; 
four  times  as  much  as  that  of  Eussia ;  six  times  that 
of  Great  Britain;  nine  times  that  of  Austria;  ten 
times  that  of  France. 

Again,  the  geographical  centre  of  Population  is 
liable  to  displacement.  Thus,  the  centre  for  Europe 


CENTRE  OF  POPULATION.  147 

has  passed  to  the  north  of  its  ancient  position  since 
the  fall  of  Paganism.  The  establishment  of  the 
Feudal  system  occasioned  one  dislocation  of  it,  the 
development  of  manufacturing  industry  in  the  north 
west  of  Europe  another. 

In  the  United  States  the  direction  of  increase  by 
population  is  nearly  due  west.  "  The  centre  of  rep 
resentative  population  of  the  Union  in  1840  was  in 
the  northwestern  extremity  of  Virginia.  It  had  trav 
eled  westward  since  1790,  when  it  was  in  Baltimore 
County,  Maryland,.  182  miles  distant,  in  very  nearly 
the  same  parallel  of  latitude." 

Montesquieu  expresses  an  opinion  which  doubtless 
would  be  strenuously  objected  to  in  our  day  if  ad 
vanced  otherwise  than  facetiously :  "  A  man  is  worth 
what  he  will  sell  for ;  in  some  countries  he  is  worth 
nothing,  in  others  less  than  nothing."  From  this  it 
would  seem  to  follow,  that  if  production  depends 
upon  demand,  population  will  be  affected  by  those 
well-known  laws,  holding  good  in  the  case  of  other 
commodities. 

Leaving  the  consideration  of  that  aspect  of  the 
case  to  the  ingenuity  of  the  reader,  it  may  be  assert 
ed  as  being  beyond  contradiction  that  not  only  is 
population  determined  by  physical  agencies,  but  also 
by  human  legislation  or  the  policy  of  governments ; 
for  governments,  by  such  obvious  means  as  volunta 
rily  engaging  in  wars,  can  occasion  an  absolute  dim- 


148       DECREASE  OF  POPULATION  IN  HOME. 

inution  through  the  destruction  of  life  that  ensues, 
and  they  may  also,  by  their  course  of  policy,  dimin 
ish  the  number  of  births.  They  ought  to  be  just  as 
much  held  accountable  for  restraining  the  appear 
ance  of  individuals  as  for  destroying  them  after  they 
have  appeared. 

We  can  have  no  better  example  of  the  control  ex 
ercised  by  public  policy  over  population  than  the 
condition  of  things  in  Rome  after  the  Civil  Wars. 
The  existence  of  the  State  was  in  danger.  It  has 
been  mentioned  (page  109)  how  an  indisposition  to 
contract  matrimony  had  arisen.  Laws  were  enacted 
to  correct  the  evil,  but  with  so  little  success  that  it 
became  necessary  to  resort  to  other  means  for  in 
creasing  the  population.  Tacitus,  speaking  of  the 
reign  of  Claudius,  says :  "  The  line  of  those  families 
which  were  styled  by  Romulus  the  first  class  of  no 
bility,  and  by  Brutus  the  second,  was  almost  extinct. 
Even  those  of  more  recent  date,  created  in  the  time 
of  Julius  Caesar  by  the  Cassian  Law,  and  under  Au 
gustus  by  the  Senian,  were  well-nigh  exhausted." 
Under  these  circumstances,  the  Emperor,  in  a  speech 
of  remarkable  ability,  advocated  the  introduction  of 
prominent  nobles  even  into  the  Senate.  "  My  ances 
tors,  the  oldest  of  whom,  Attus  Clausus,  though  of 
Sabine  origin,  was  at  once  enrolled  among  Roman 
citizens  and  adopted  into  the  patrician  rank,  furnish 
me  with  a  lesson  that  I  ought  to  pursue  similar  nieas- 


SPEECH  OF  THE  EMPEROR  CLAUDIUS.  149 

ures  in  directing  the  affairs  of  the  commonwealth, 
and  transfer  to  Rome  every  thing  that  is  of  pre-emi 
nent  merit  wheresoever  found.  Nor,  indeed,  am  I  ig 
norant  that  from  Alba  we  had  the  Julii,  from  Came- 
riuni  the  Coruncanii,  and  the  Portii  from  Tusculum ; 
and,  not  to  enter  into  a  minute  detail  of  remote  trans 
actions,  that  from  Etruria,  Lucania,  and  all  Italy  per 
sons  have  been  incorporated  into  the  Senate.  At  last 
our  city  became  bounded  only  by  the  Alps,  so  that 
not  only  separate  individuals,  but  whole  states  and 
nations,  were  ingrafted  into  the  Roman  name.  We 
had  solid  peace  at  home,  and  our  arms  prospered 
abroad,  when  the  nations  beyond  the  Po  were  pre 
sented  with  the  rights  of  citizens ;  and  when,  under 
pretext  of  leading  out  our  legions  into  colonies  all 
over  the  earth,  and  uniting  with  them  the  ffower  of 
the  natives,  we  recruited  our  exhausted  state.  Do 
we  regret  that  the  Balbi  migrated  to  us  from  Spain, 
or  men  equally  illustrious  from  the  Narbon  Gaul? 
Their  descendants  remain  yet  with  us,  nor  yield  to 
us  in  their  love  of  this  our  common  country.  What 
proved  the  bane  of  the  Spartans  and  Athenians, 
though  potent  in  arms,  was  that  they  treated  as 
aliens  and  refused  to  unite  with  the  conquered.  On 
the  other  hand,  so  great  was  the  wisdom  of  Romulus 
our  founder,  that  he  saw  several  people  his  enemies 
and  his  citizens  in  one  and  the  same  day.  Foreign 
ers  have  even  reigned  over  us.  For  magistracies  to 


150  SPEECH  OF  THE  EMPEROR  CLAUDIUS. 

be  intrusted  to  the  children  of  freemen  is  no  innova 
tion,  as  many  are  erroneously  persuaded,  but  a  con 
stant  practice  of  the  elder  people.  But,  it  is  urged, 
we  have  had  wars  with  the  Senones.  Have  the  Vol- 
scians,  have  the  ^Equians  never  engaged  us  in  battle  \ 
It  is  true,  our  capital  has  been  taken  by  the  Gauls ; 
but  by  the  Tuscans  we  have  been  forced  to  give,  host 
ages,  and  by  the  Samnites  to  pass  under  the  yoke. 
However,  upon  a  review  of  all  our  wars,  none  will 
be  found  to  have  been  more  speedily  concluded  than 
that  with  the  Gauls,  and  from  that  time  uninterrupt 
ed  peace  has  existed.  Identified  with  us  in  customs, 
in  civil  and  military  accomplishments,  and  domestic 
alliances,  let  them  rather  introduce  among  us  their 
gold  and  wealth,  than  enjoy  them  without  our  par 
ticipation.  All  the  institutions,  Conscript  Fathers, 
which  are  now  venerated  as  most  ancient,  were  once 
new;  the  plebeian  magistrates  were  later  than  the 
patricians,  the  Latin  later  than  the  plebeian;  those  of 
other  nations  in  Italy  came  after  the  Latin ;  the  pres 
ent  admission  of  the  Gauls  will  also  wax  old,  and 
what  is  this  day  supported  by  precedents  will  here 
after  become  a  precedent."  This  speech  was  follow 
ed  by  a  decree  declaring  the  JEduans  capable  of  a 
seat  in  the  Senate. 

The  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire  has  been  attributed 
to  various  causes,  but,  from  a  consideration  of  such 
facts  as  that  here  presented,  I  think  there  can  be  no 


VARIATIONS  IN  THE  POPULATION  OF  ENGLAND. 

doubt  of  the  correctness  of  the  conclusion  mentioned 
(page  108),  that  it  was  due  to  extinction  of  the  Ro 
man  ethnical  element.  The  special  Roman  popula 
tion  so  rapidly  depreciated  that  the  difficulty  became 
incurable  even  by  the  most  energetic  legislation. 

National  policy,  then,  exercises  a  prodigious  influ 
ence  on  population,  though  the  particular  form  of 
government  may  have  but  little  effect.  It  would  not 
have  been  of  the  smallest  consequence  to  England,  in 
1790,  what  her  form  of  government  might  have  been 
—republican,  oligarchical,  or  monarchical ;  her  mech 
anicians,  Watt,  Arkwright,  Hargreaves,  Crompton, 
Cartwright,  by  their  inventions  of  the  steam-engine, 
the  spinning -frame,  the  jenny,  the  mule,  the  power- 
loom,  the  carding-machine,  had  put  her  in  a  position 
to  monopolize  the  markets  of  the  world.  Industrial 
interests  very  quickly  became  paramount  in  the  state. 
In  fifty  years  she  had  not  only  doubled  her  popula 
tion,  but,  as  we  have  said,  her  machine  power  had 
become  equal  to  thirty  millions  of  men.  In  that  pe 
riod  she  almost  quadrupled  her  wealth,  notwithstand 
ing  losses  through  the  most  surprising  political  folly. 
The  talent  of  her  inventors  more  than  counterbal 
anced  the  ignorance  of  her  statesmen.  Her  commer 
cial  men,  in  conquering  India,  found  a  compensation 
for  the  loss  of  America.  Her  salvation  was  due  to 
her  merchants  and  machinists,  not  to  her  politicians 
and  military  men.  These,  had  they  not  been  coun- 


152  THEORY  OF  POPULATION, 

teracted,  .would  inevitably  have  brought  her  to  ruin ; 
those,  in  spite  of  every  disadvantage,  gave  her  an  in 
trinsic  strength  equal  to  that  of  the  Roman  empire 
at  its  maximum,  when  its  population  was  one  hund 
red  and  twenty  millions. 

How  was  it  that  industrial  activity  thus  developed 
population  2  It  provided  for  human  support,  and  in 
creased  the  demand  for  labor.  Moreover,  during  that 
period  there  was  a  reduction  of  mortality  by  nearly 
one  third. 

The  general  principles  involved  in  determining 
population  have  long  been  understood  and  are  very 
simple.  The  natural  instinct  which  leads  to  increase, 
and  which  is  the  most  powerful  of  human  passions, 
is  of  uniform  intensity.  Arising  in  the  peculiarities 
of  our  organization,  it  can  never  be  interfered  with 
except  by  interfering  with  the  organization,  and 
hence,  in  its  intrinsic  force,  is  the  same  from  age  to 
age  in  the  same  nation.  In  different  nations,  com 
pared  together,  it  doubtless  exists  in  different  de 
grees,  being  dependent  in  this  respect,  as  might  be 
easily  proved,  on  climate.  In  Western  Europe  we 
may  estimate  its  value  from  this,  that  if  there  be  a 
perfect  freedom  for  its  unrestrained  action,  and  its  re 
sults  be  submitted  to  no  unusual  causes  of  mortality, 
it  will  double  a  population  in  twenty-five  years. 

Such  being  the  absolute  value  of  the  generative 
force  of  society,  the  observed  result  in  any  case  de- 


THEORY  OF  POPULATION.  153 

pends  on  the  resistances.  A  human  being  must  be 
fed,  clothed,  and  sheltered,  conditions  the  procure 
ment  of  which  implies  labor.  Insufficient  food,  inad 
equate  clothing,  imperfect  shelter,  are  the  resisting 
forces  in  the  problem  of  Population.  Even  with  a 
free  play  for  the  generative  force,  the  resistances  con 
trol  the  effect,  since  they  act  in  a  double  way — oper 
ating  before  birth  so  as  in  many  instances  to  end  life 
before  that  epoch,  and  after  birth,  insuring  death  by 
the  starvation  and  misery  they  occasion.  Practically 
speaking,  then,  it  is  quite  true,  as  writers  on  Political 
Economy  assert,  that  the  increase  of  Population  keeps 
pace  with  the  increase  of  food.  A  critical  examina 
tion  will,  however,  satisfy  us  that  this  is  only  a  state 
ment  of  one  particular  case  of  the  general  problem, 
and  that,  philosophically,  all  the  resistances  ought  to 
be  included. 

Since  the  time  of  the  Jesuit  Botero,  it  has  been  ad 
mitted  that  no  legal  encouragement  to  matrimony 
can  be  effective  unless  there  is  a  corresponding  in 
crease  of  the  means  of  subsistence.  Modern  statistics 
have  established  that  in  Europe  there  is  a  close  con 
nection  between  the  number  of  marriages  and  the 
price  of  corn. 

We  must  not  overlook  the  interesting  remark  that 
the  manner  of  operation  of  these  Resistances  is  two 
fold — physical  and  intellectual.  Cold,  the  want  of 
food  and  of  clothing,  will  act  instantaneously  in  ef- 


154:  THEORY  OF  POPULATION. 

fecting  a  reduction.  The  history  of  every  famine  is 
an  illustration  of  such  abruptness;  and  the  meagre 
population  of  countries  in  which  the  production  of 
food  is  uniformly  difficult,  a  testimony  to  the  slower 
influence.  But,  besides  this,  man,  being  endowed 
with  reason  and  continually  looking  to  the  future, 
puts  a  restraint  upon  himself.  He  will  determine 
to  refrain  from  marriage  until  he  sees  a  clear  pros 
pect  for  the  support  of  a  family.  He  is  unwilling  to 
burden  himself  with  a  weight  which  he  is  not  able 
yet  to  carry,  and  to  inflict  on  those  who  must  for 
many  years  be  wholly  helpless  and  dependent  the  in 
evitable  consequences  of  distress  and  misery.  In  civ 
ilized,  and  especially  in  religious  communities,  this  in 
tellectual  Resistance  assumes  very  great  power. 

In  any  country  the  uniform  generative  social  force 
goes  on  increasing  the  population  until  it  is  checked 
by  the  Resistances — the  difficulty  of  feeding,  clothing, 
sheltering — in  short,  by  Poverty.  It  is  a  true  maxim, 
that  the  principle  of  increase  is  always  far  more  than 
sufficient  to  keep  the  population  equal  to  its  means 
of  subsistence,  and,  indeed,  in  most  countries,  some 
what  overpasses  that  point,  and  establishes  a  con 
stant  pressure  on  the  limits  of  supply,  and  a  certain 
amount  of  destitution  is  the  inevitable  consequence, 
there  now  being  births  that  must  be  starved. 

The  statesman  who  is  called  upon  to  deal  with  the 
Problem  of  Population  has,  therefore,  obviously  the 


THEORY  OF  POPULATION.  155 

choice  between  two  courses  of  action.  He  may  touch 
the  generative  force,  or  he  may  touch  the  resistances ; 
for  though,  as  has  been  said,  in  an  absolute  sense  the 
power  is  uniform,  yet  there  exist  means  by  a  resort 
to  which  its  consequences  may  be  indirectly  inter 
fered  with  or  rendered  nugatory.  It  seems  to  me, 
however,  that  practice  in  this  direction  must  always 
imply  immorality,  and  that  an  enlightened  man  will 
rely  exclusively  on  the  other  mode. 

Would  any  one  undertake  to  regulate  the  amount 
of  air  which  shall  be  inspired  in  a  given  period  of 
time,  or  the  amount  of  food  that  shall  be  consumed  ? 
Would  any  one  legislate  as  to  the  quantity  of  water 
that  shall  be  lost  by  perspiration  ?  We  recognize  in 
these  various  things  the  connection  between  organiza 
tion  and  its  result. 

So  in  that  other  case,  to  which  with  needful  ob 
scurity  I  refer,  he  deceives  himself  who  supposes  that 
he  can  interrupt  action  while  organization  subsists : 
at  the  most,  the  effect  is  illusory,  and  is  finding  its 
manifestation  in  some  other  way.  Public  Celibacy  is 
private  wickedness.  It  is  this  dreadful  truth,  as  ap 
plicable  to  communities,  which  has  induced  several 
European  governments  to  enter  on  those  methods 
against  which  every  religious  man  must  revolt — the 
organization  of  prostitution. 

The  other  mode  of  influencing  population  we  may 
consider  without  embarrassment.  More  food,  cheap- 


156  THEORY  OF  POPULATION. 

er  clothing,  better  houses,  are  insured  by  increased 
remunerative  labor,  and  this  is  instantly  followed  by 
increase  of  numbers.  These  also  are  things  which 
fall  within  the  scope  of  enlightened  legislation.  To 
these  must  be  added  those  noble  discoveries  we  owe 
to  physicians,  such  as  vaccination,  improved  methods 
for  the  cure  of  diseases,  and  measures  for  the  abate 
ment  of  pestilence.  These,  by  securing  to  the  pro 
ductive  laborer  more  vigorous  health  and  by  dimin 
ishing  the  death-rate,  add  directly  and  indirectly  to 
the  population.  A  similar  result  must  occur  from 
inventions  which  yield  cheap  clothing  suited  to  the 
different  seasons  of  the  year,  or  add  to  the  comforts 
and  conveniences  of  houses. 

From  this  superficial  consideration  of  the  Problem 
of  Population  we  gather  a  most  instructive  lesson — 
the  same  that  we  have  already  learned  from  our  in 
quiries  respecting  the  origin,  maintenance,  distribu 
tion,  and  extinction  of  animals  and  plants.  This  les 
son  is,  that  the  world  is  governed  by  Law.  The  gen 
eration  of  human  life,  the  production  of  men,  may  be 
controlled  by  political  agency  and  political  conditions. 
Increases  or  diminutions  of  responsible  immortal  souls 
may  be  determined  by  statesmanship. 

Under  the  influence  of  such  natural  laws  Europe 
received  its  population  from  its  Asiatic  intruders. 
Climate  and  other  exterior  conditions  separated  it 
into  nations,  of  which  each  thenceforth  pursued  its 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  HUMAN  RACES.  157 

special  way  of  life,  imitating,  as  far  as  circumstances 
would  permit,  the  successive  stages  of  development 
of  an  individual. 

There  is  a  progress  for  races  of  men  as  well  marked 
as  is  the  career  of  one  man.     There  are  thoughts  and 
actions  appertaining  to  specific  periods  of  life  in  the 
one  case  as  in  the  other.     The  march  of  individual 
existence  shadows  forth  the  march  of  race  existence, 
being,  indeed,  its   representation   on   a  little    scale. 
Among  humble  animals  intercommunication  converts 
groups  into  an  individual.     The  hive  is  moved  by  a 
common  sentiment,  the  birds  of  passage  are  marshal 
ed  in  a  suitable  array.    Among  men,  speech  and  writ 
ing  mould  successive  generations  and  different  nations 
into  one  person.     A  society  solicited  by  determinate 
physical  influences  would  pass  forward  through   a 
path  as  definite  as  that  exhibited  by  a  single  man. 
A  second  society,  completely  separated  from  the  pre 
ceding  by  space  or  by  time,  would,  under  like  influ 
ences,  do  exactly  the  same  thing.     It  is  not  a  mere 
tendency,  it  is  an  actual  performance.     The  infant  of 
our  time  develops  in  the  same  way,  and  performs  ac 
tions  suitable  to  his  stage,  as  did  the  infant  a  thou 
sand  years  ago.     He  who  is  born  in  Asia  advances 
through  the  same  stages,  exhibiting  therein   corre 
sponding  'actions  as  he  who  is  born  in  America.    The 
variations  we  perceive,  as  our  examination  of  these 
actions  becomes  more  minute,  arise  from  the  disturb- 


158      NECESSITY  OF  MATERIAL  TO  MENTAL  CHANGE. 

ance  of  temporary  and  local  causes,  and  the  voluntary 
reaction  of  individuals  on  one  another.  No  matter 
what  diversity  or  dissimilarity  we  find  at  first,  as  we 
contemplate  them  with  fixed  attention  and  sufficient 
ly  long,  their  sameness  becomes  more  and  more  man 
ifest. 

As  in  the  Individual,  so  in  the  Nation,  the  time  for 
psychical  change  corresponds  with  that  for  physical. 
In  the  individual,  structural  development  is  the  har 
binger  of  the  display  of  new  functions.  Examined 
from  the  first  moment  of  life  throughout  the  ascend 
ing  course,  a  variation  in  function  is  ever  preceded  by 
alteration  in  construction — so  completely,  indeed,  that 
either  being  perceived,  the  other  may  be  predicted. 
From  this  we  gather  the  all-important  conclusion  that 
in  national  life  it  is  altogether  impossible  to  have  ad 
vancement  unless  there  be  a  corresponding  material 
change.  We  vainly  attempt  the  improvement  of  a 
race,  intellectually  or  morally,  by  missionary  exertion 
qr  by  education,  unless  we  simultaneously  touch  its 
actual  physical  condition.  Any"  impression  made 
upon  that  gives  the  possibility  of  accomplishing  the 
other.  The  conclusion  to  which  we  thus  arrive  from 
purely  physiological  considerations  is  strengthened  by 
actual  experience.  Does  the  splendid  generosity  of 
Christendom  in  behalf  of  the  heathen  world  receive 
that  fruit  which  is  fairly  its  due?  Are  not  the  ex 
pected  successes  from  year  to  year  postponed  ? 


NECESSITY  OF  MATERIAL  TO  MENTAL  CHANGE.       15Q 

The  mental  change  which  has  occurred  in  Europe 
during  the  last  two  centuries  was  rendered  possible 
by  concurring  material  changes.  Of  what  avail  is 
education,  except  it  be  in  presence  of  an  ameliorated 
social  condition?  The  diminution  of  the  blue -eyed 
races  on  that  continent  shows  how  profound  has  been 
the  physiological  change ;  and  better  shelter,  better 
clothing,  better  food,  were  the  necessary  precursors 
of  better  mental  conceptions.  Great  amendments  in 
the  daily  life  of  communities,  great  improvements  in 
their  manner  of  thinking,  can  only  be  attained  by  cor 
responding  physical  modifications. 

It  is  with  reluctance  I  acknowledge  how  small  is 
the  influence  exerted  by  mere  persuasion  or  even  ex 
ample.  To  elevate  or  to  depress  a  group  of  men,  it 
is  necessary  to  touch  their  physical  condition.  If  it 
were  not  so,  how  different  would  the  career  of  the 
Indians  upon  this  continent  have  been !  With  the 
illustrious  example  of  the  white  race  before  their 
eyes,  ought  they  not  to  have  joined  in  the  progress, 
co-partners  with  us  in  a  glorious  advance  ?  How  do 
those  well-meaning  men,  who  hope  to  accomplish  the 
conversion  and  civilization  of  Nations  by  the  preach 
ing  of  a  single  missionary,  account  for  the  facts  we 
have  here  ?  The  white  American  and  the  red  Indian, 
in  presence  of  one  another,  offer  the  missionary  prob 
lem  in  its  grandest  proportions.  We  turn  away  from 
the  undeniable  result  with  disappointment  and  pain. 


160         CONSEQUENCES  OF  PERMANENT  HABITATION. 

A  people  who  have  occupied  the  same  soil  beyond 
the  memory  of  man,  and  who  have  never  been  dis 
turbed  by  admixture  with  others,  may  present  a  so 
cial  condition  pf  repose  and  stability — a  tendency  to 
persist  in  their  habits,  whatever  those  habits  may  be ; 
if  they  are  hunters  and  warriors,  hunters  and  warriors 
they  may  continue.  Conservatism  is  stamped  upon 
them.  They  show  no  disposition  to  advance,  and 
hence,  no  matter  how  active  their  intrinsic  life,  so 
cially  they  are  in  repose.  It  is  this  state  of  stagna 
tion  which  constitutes  in  European  countries  the  real 
difficulty  of  elevating  by  education  the  lower  orders. 
They  cling  to  their  maxims  of  life,  no  matter  how 
evil — to  their  religious  ideas,  no  matter  how  absurd, 
with  a  perversity  that  is  almost  beyond  belief.  At 
the  best,  they  may  be  taught  to  imitate,  but  never 
to  comprehend.  They  are  at  once  impenetrable  to 
knowledge  and  intolerant  of  change.  The  peasant, 
who  cultivates  his  ancestral  roods  with  the  antique 
implement  used  in  the  Roman  times,  looks  with  a 
mixed  sentiment  of  derision  and  abomination  on  an 
improved  plow.  His  intellectual  stagnation  can  not 
be  overcome  by  any  legislation,  nor  even  by  the  force 
of  example.  Experience  the  most  melancholy  teach- 
es  us  that  the  hand  of  violence  can  alone  arouse  him, 
the  hand  of  violence  alone  improve  him.  It  is  this 
consideration  which  suggests  to  the  philosophical 
mind  a  sad  apology  for  the  iniquities  and  calamities 
of  conquest  and  war. 


CONSEQUENCES  OF  LOCOMOTION. 

A  people  who  are  new  to  tlie  climate  in  which 
they  live — who  have  not  attained  a  physiological  cor 
respondence  with  its  conditions — who  are  incessant 
ly,  universally,  and  profoundly  disturbed  by  foreign 
blood  -  admixture,  will  exhibit  a  scene  of  intense  so 
cial  activity.  Among  them  will  not  be  found  that 
dead -weight  of  old  communities,  an  obtuse  lower 
class,  almost  impenetrable  to  knowledge  and  hating 
improvement ;  but,  in  all  the  social  members,  thought 
takes  the  direction  of  individual  and  general  improve 
ment.  From  the  bosom  of  the  mass  emerge  with 
more  facility  and  more  numerously  those  who  are 
gifted  with  superior  endowments,  who  in  an  old 
community  disentangle  themselves  from  obscurity 
with  much  difficulty,  or  perhaps  not  at  all.  Here 
there  is  nothing  of  stagnation ;  all  is  commotion  and 
advance. 

I  do  not  propose  here  to  consider  in  detail  the  com 
plications  that  must  have  occurred  in  the  advancing 
progress  of  European  nations,  through  their  interac 
tion  upon  each  other. 

It  is  often  affirmed  that  blood -admixture  implies 
thought- variation.  By  this  is  meant  that  the  inter 
mingling  of  one  race  with  another  gives  rise  to  a 
product  not  only  participating  in  the  bodily  linea 
ments  of  its  progenitors,  but  in  the  mental  lineaments 
too.  Incorporation  with  a  base  race  will  lower  the 
standard  of  a  superior  one. 

L 


1C2  ILLUSTRATION  FROM  EGYPTIAN  HISTORY. 

The  historical  instances  that  might  be  quoted  in 
proof  of  this  are  very  numerous.  Selecting  one  as 
an  illustration,  since  I  have  had  occasion  to  refer  to 
Egypt  before,  I  may  return  to  that  case  again.  Its 
language  proves  to  us  that  in  pre-historic  times  that 
country  was  wrested  from  its  original  African  owners 
by  successful  Asiatic  invaders.  The  occurrence  of 
words  referable  to  Indo-Germanic  roots  establishes 
that  fact.  The  consequences  of  this  event  are  seen  in 
the  social  organization.  The  existence  of  caste  dis 
tinctions  is  an  inevitable  memento  of  violent  con 
quest.  The  superior  caste  is  the  descendant  of  the 
conquering  race.  In  Egypt  there  were  castes. 

But  more  than  this,  Religious  ideas  are  indications 

o 

of  the  social  state.  What  is  the  interpretation  that 
we  must  put  on  mummied  bulls,  and  cats,  and  snakes? 
The  adoration  paid  to  them,  was  it  the  adoration  of 
intelligent  minds  ?  The  priesthood  of  Egypt  retained 
in  purity  the  monotheistic  conceptions  their  ancestors 
brought  from  Asia,  keeping  them  for  the  initiated ; 
but  the  social  condition  of  the  nation  required  a  base 
adulteration  with  the  African  worship  of  beasts. 

The  ruling  class,  whose  conceptions  are  made  man 
ifest  to  us  by  the  stupendous  ruins  and  eternal  archi 
tecture  they  have  left,  are  then  not  to  be  blamed  for 
the  policy  of  exclusion  they  adopted.  Their  daily  ex 
perience  brought  them  in  contact  with  too  many  to 
kens  of  the  deterioration  their  race  had  suffered  in  the 


CONSEQUENCES  OF  BLOOD-ADMIXTURE. 

old  times  by  blood-admixture.  Instinctively  they  shut 
out  the  foreigner.  They  kept  the  Hebrew  under  his 
taskmaster  apart;  they  would  neither  eat  with  him 
nor  mix  with  him.  They  made  it  death  for  the  Euro 
pean  to  set  his  foot  in  their  country — that  country  of 
which,  as  they  mournfully  knew,  the  true  emblem  was 
a  sphinx,  with  a  human  head  and  an  animal  body. 

It  is  not  consistent  with  the  prosperity  of  a  Nation 
to  permit  heterogeneous  mixtures  of  races  that  are 
physiologically  far  apart.  Their  inferior  product  be 
comes  a  dead  weight  on  the  body  politic.  If  Italy 
was  for  a  thousand  years  after  the  extinction  of  the 
true  Roman  race  a  scene  of  anarchy,  its  hybrid  inhab 
itants  being  unable  to  raise  it  from  its  degradation, 
how  indescribably  deplorable  must  the  condition  be 
where  there  has  been  a  mortal  adulteration  with 
African  blood. 

At  the  close  of  the  present  century  there  will  prob 
ably  be  ninety  millions  of  white  inhabitants  in  the 
United  States,  and  only  about  nine  millions  of  col 
ored.  The  periodical  oscillations  the  black  popula 
tion  has  exhibited  —  their  increasing  more  rapidly 
during  one  decade,  as  from  1820  to  1830,  and  de 
clining  during  another,  as  from  1830  to  1840 — will 
probably  be  obliterated,  if  due,  as  is  thought,  to  the 
excessive  importation  of  African  slaves  from  1800  to 
1808.  In  the  slower  increase  of  the  colored  popula 
tion,  as  compared  with  the  white,  supposing  no  direct 


104  CONSEQUENCES  OF  BLOOD-ADMIXTURE. 

political  action  to  be  resorted  to,  lies  the  solution  of 
the  Negro  problem  in  America. 

The  progress  of  blood  -  admixture  is  also  very  ob 
vious.  In  1850  one  ninth  of  the  colored  class  were 
returned  as  mulattoes,  but  in  1860  the  proportion 
had  risen  to  one  eighth.  Of  every  100  colored  births, 
17  were  mulattoes  and  83  blacks.  There  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  the  mingling  of  the  two  races 
is  unfavorable  to  the  vitality  of  their  hybrid  product. 

Let  us  now,  in  conclusion,  proceed  to  apply  the 
philosophical  facts  we  have  been  considering  by  the 
light  of  historical  evidence  to  the  special  case  of  our 
own  country. 

The  principles  chiefly  to  be  borne  in  mind  are  these 
—that  the  political  effect  of  emigration  depends  upon 
the  grade  of  society  from  which  the  emigrating  mass 
has  issued,  being  very  different  in  the  case  of  the  la 
boring  and  of  the  intellectual  classes  respectively— 
that  hompgeneousness  in  a  community  imparts  sta 
bility,  though  it  eventually  implies  stagnation — that 
a  community  suffering  incessant  blood  -  disturbance 
will  exhibit  social  activity,  though,  if  the  disturbing 
element  is  very  base,  a  corresponding  depreciation  of 
its  absolute  value  will  ensue. 

In  the  Southern  States  there  are  two  races  physio 
logically  distinct — the  white,  which  may  be  regarded 
as  not  liable  to  blood  -  contamination,  and  therefore 


BLOOD-DISTURBANCE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

becoming  yearly  more  and  more  homogeneous;  tlie 
black,  liable,  as  we  have  seen,  to  increasing  contam 
ination  of  so  extraneous  and  different  a  kind  that  the 
result  becomes  purposeless. 

In  the  Northern  States  the  blood  -  disturbance  is 
through  emigration.  Its  effect  would  be  more  mark 
ed  if  the  stream  did  not  flow  mainly  from  Ireland 
and  Germany,  countries  bounded  by  the  same  annual 
isothermals  that  limit  New  York  on  the  north  and 
Washington  on  the  south.  The  movement  which 
this  class  of  population  has  to  accomplish,  to  come 
into  correspondence  with  the  new  conditions,  is  not 
great;  but  a  careful  observer  will  not  fail  to  detect 
the  retardation  it  impresses  on  the  movement  of  its 
predecessors,  and  their  corresponding  detention  in 
the  lower  intellectual  states.  The  manner  of  thought 
of  the  whole  community  is  less  definite,  its  ideas  less 
settled,  its  intentions  less  precise. 

The  Atlantic  States  have  been  the  seat  from  which 
has  issued  the  emigration  destined  to  people  the 
West.  So  far  as  their  agricultural  population  is  con 
cerned,  several  of  them  may  be  regarded  as  having 
passed  into  a  stationary  condition.  Of  this,  Vermont 
may  be  taken  as  an  example,  its  census  report  for 
I860  being  substantially  the  same  as  that  for  1850. 
If  the  limit  of  land -support  has  thus  been  reached, 
any  farther  advance  must  be  looked  for  from  com 
mercial  and  manufacturing  avocations.  The  North- 


166      INTERNAL  MIGRATIONS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

western  States  offer  a  striking  contrast.     In  the  same 
decade  Illinois  doubled  its  population.     Owing   to 
their  remarkable   salubrity  and  unrivaled  fertility, 
those  regions  are  fast  becoming  the  granary  of  Eu-' 
rope. 

From  the  older  states,  in  this  manner,  a  very  large 
portion  of  their  population  has  been  removed,  in  the 
general  aggregate  about  one  fourth  having  emigrated. 
In  1850  the  large  number  of  4,176,000  whites  were 
living  in  states  where  they  were  not  born.  In  thirty 
states  the  native  emigrants  have  chiefly  preferred  to 
locate  in  a  state  adjacent  to  that  of  their  birth ;  the 
overflow  has  been  greatest  nearest  its  sources,  yet 
progressive  and  diffusive  in  all  directions.  In  gen 
eral,  and  in  obedience  to  the  principle  I  have  indica 
ted,  these  emigrants  move  on  parallels  of  latitude. 

Now  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  countries  thus 
settled  bear  a  resemblance,  social  and  political,  to 
those  from  which  their  population  was  first  derived ; 
a  fact  pointing  to  the  conclusion  that  the  abstraction 
made  from  the  Atlantic  States  has  been  in  a  propor 
tional  manner  from  each  of  their  three  social  grades. 
The  effect  of  this  has  been  to  keep  those  states  intel 
lectually  in  a  stationary  condition,  or  to  retard  the 
development  they  would  otherwise  have  made.  So 
ciety,  retaining  in  them  more  or  less  completely  its 
interior  primitive  balance,  has  lost  the  advantage 
that  would  have  been  derived  had  the  field  of  action 


CONSEQUENCES  OF  INTERNAL  MIGRATION.     167 

been  limited,  the  population  more  dense,  the  mental 
competition  more  violent.  This  is  the  explanation 
of  the  remark  so  often  made,  that  our  material  pros 
perity  and  our  mental  progress  have  not  advanced 
with  an  equal  step. 

The  emigrating  mass  has  also  been  placed  under 
extraordinary  conditions.  Peopling  an  uninhabited 
region,  it  has  suffered  no  deterioration  from  blood-ad 
mixture  with  lower  tribes.  The  change  that  is  be 
ing  impressed  upon  it  is  altogether  the  effect  of  cli 
mate.  Physically  it  hastens  to  come  into  correspond 
ence  with  the  new  circumstances,  and  is  ever  moving 
in  an  ascending  course.  The  length  of  time  to  be  oc 
cupied  in  the  metamorphosis  before  complete  accord 
ance  is  gained  must  be  very  considerable,  and  sub 
ject  to  a  perpetual  retardation,  if  continued  emigra 
tion  is  all  the  time  going  on. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  length  of  time  and  the 
course  to  be  gone  through  are  shortened  by  that  ar 
tificial  equalization  of  Climate  accomplished  in  civil 
ized  life.  The  building  and  warming  of  houses,  the 
adjustment  of  clothing,  the  selection  of  food,  compen 
sate  very  largely  for  differences  of  climate,  and  bring 
us  all  to  a  more  homogeneous  state. 

Of  course,  it  would  be  in  vain  to  deny  that  while 
all  this  is  taking  place,  and  as  matters  now  stand,  the 
intellectual  position  is  very  far  below  that  which  will 
inevitably  be  ultimately  reached.  Our  journalism, 


168  CONSEQUENCES  OF  INTERNAL  MIGRATION. 

our  criticism,  our  educational  establishments,  bear 
evidence  to  the  depression  under  which  they  neces 
sarily  labor.  In  fact,  our  situation  is  such  that  we 
actually  can  not  profitably  take  advantage  of  the 
knowledge  that  we  do  possess. 

An  illustration  will  point  out  what  I  mean.  A 
Virginia  planter  grows  tobacco  on  his  land  until  he 
has  exhausted  it.  Of  wrhat  avail  to  him  is  agricultu 
ral  chemistry,  with  all  its  great  discoveries  ?  It  might 
cost  him  five  hundred  dollars  an  acre  to  repair  the 
mischief  he  has  done  to  his  estate ;  but  he  can  buy 
virgin  lands  in  the  West  at  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  an 
acre.  Agricultural  colleges  are  of  no  use  to  him. 
And  so,  for  miles  together  in  the  Southern  States, 
there  are  desolated  and  forsaken  tracts — old  fields,  as 
they  are  called.  But,  if  land  is  worth  little,  labor  is 
worth  much.  Whoever  can  invent  a  labor-saving 
machine  will  make  money.  So  our  improvements 
are  not  in  the  direction  of  agricultural  chemistry, 
but  of  agricultural  mechanism. 

In  like  manner  with  our  educational  establish 
ments.  Many  intelligent  persons  speak  depreciating 
ly  of  them,  not  considering  duly  the  invisible  press 
ure  there  is  upon  them.  Their  humble  position  for 
the  time  being  is  unavoidable.  It  is  not  to  be 
amended  by  the  system  of  multiplying  them.  That 
only  makes  them  more  importunate  rivals  in  beg 
gary.  For  years  to  come  our  public  schools  must 


MIGRATION  TO  THE  SOUTH.  169 

be  the  seats  of  superficial  learning ;  and  we  must  ac 
cept  it  as  an  unavoidable  fact,  with  the  sad  conse 
quence  taught  us  by  European  statistics,  that  that 
kind  of  instruction  does  not  lead  to  the  diminution, 
but  rather  to  the  increase  of  immorality.  We  must 
pass  through  the  temporary  evil  to  reach  the  final 
good. 

Such  I  consider  to  be  the  present  effect  of  the  emi 
gration  that  has  been  going  on  from  the  Atlantic 
States  to  the  West — we  endure  a  temporary  retard 
ation.  But,  should  the  course  of  that  emigration  be 
shortly  diverted  to  the  South,  an  event  by  no  means 
beyond  the  bounds  of  possibility,  the  conditions  of 
the  problem  are  essentially  altered,  and  far  -  seeing 
statesmen  will  discern  that  the  experience  we  have 
hitherto  had  will  be  altogether  inapplicable.  The 
blood-admixture  that  must  inevitably  ensue  with  the 
white  population  of  the  South  —  a  population  that 
has  nearly  become  homogeneous,  nearly  in  agreement 
with  the  climate  it  is  inhabiting,  which  has  hitherto 
been  disturbed  by  emigration  to  only  an  insignificant 
extent,  and  which,  in  its  origin,  was  sensibly  different 
from  ours — that  blood  -  admixture  will  make  itself 
powerfully  felt  in  the  consequences  that  must  ensue. 

In  these  remarks  as  to  the  probability  of  an  emi 
gration  to  the  South,  it  will  doubtless  be  perceived 
that  there  is  implied  the  transient  nature  of  the  ex 
isting  alienation,  an  extinction  of  the  bitterness  of. 


170  COMPARATIVE  EFFECTS  OF  WARS. 

feeling  pervading  that  portion  of  the  country.  There 
is  a  great  difference  between  Civil  and  Foreign  Wars 
as  respects  the  permanence  of  the  sentiments  they  en 
gender.  History  is  full  of  examples  how  speedily 
the  feuds  of  a  Civil  War  die  away.  Man  is  so  con 
stituted  that  he  spontaneously  resigns  to  oblivion  his 
unsuccessful  undertakings ;  and,  since  they  form  by 
far  the  larger  proportion  of  the  things  he  does,  he  is 
reconciled  by  habit  to  that  forgetfulness.  The  van 
quished  in  a  civil  strife  avoids  a  recollection  of  his 
disappointed  hopes.  The  victor  abstains  from  a  con 
templation  of  his  success :  he  feels  that  he  can  afford 
to  forget  even  glory ;  and  so  the  memory  of  such 
events  speedily  passes  away.  New  objects,  new  mo 
tives,  new  pursuits  are  presented,  and  society  starts 
again  on  a  new  basis.  How  brief  a  space  it  took,  in 
the  old  times,  to  obliterate  all  memory  of  the  awful 
civil  wars  of  the  Roman  Empire — in  later  times,  of 
those  of  England !  It  will  take  a  still  shorter  period 
to  do  the  same  in  the  activity  of  human  life  in 
America. 

The  Pacific  front  of  America,  compared  with  its 
Atlantic  front,  presents  differences  so  striking,  that 
the  future  physiological  effect  can  not  fail  to  be  im 
portant.  u  A  cold  sea-current  so  reduces  the  temper 
ature  of  summer,  that  July  is  only  eight  or  nine  Fah 
renheit  degrees  warmer  than  January,  and  September 
•is  the  hottest  month.  For  this  reason,  Indian  corn 


THE  PACIFIC  STATES.  171 

fails  to  come  to  maturity,  though  wheat  and  other 
cereals,  as  well  as  orchard  fruits,  attain  their  utmost 
perfection.  The  elastic  atmosphere  and  bracing  ef 
fect  of  the  climate  have  been  remarked  by  settlers 
from  all  parts  of  the  world." 

From  the  remarks  made  on  page  91,  it  will  be  in 
ferred  that  the  Pacific  shore  of  the  United  States  is 
destined  hereafter  to  be  the  scene  of  an  active  Asiatic 
emigration.  So  vast  is  the  mineral  and  agricultural 

O  o 

wealth  of  those  regions,  so  importunate  the  demand 
for  labor,  so  remunerative  its  result,  that  the  settled 
and  torpid  populations  of  China,  Japan,  India,  can  not 
fail  to  be  affected.  Already  from  the  first  of  those 
countries  the  vanguard  of  such  an  intruding  column 
has  appeared.  The  Chinese  population  of  California 
is  far  from  insignificant,  and  is  steadily  increasing :  in 
1860  it  was  34,933.  It  is  of  no  importance  that  for 
the  present  these  people  look  upon  the  country  they 
thus  visit  as  merely  a  temporary  abode,  in  which 
money  is  to  be  mader  and  that,  as  their  moderate  ex 
pectations  of  a  competency  are  fulfilled,  they  hasten 
to  return  to  their  native  place.  That  is  the  natural 
timidity  of  early  adventurers. 

But  these,  in  due  season,  will  be  followed  by  oth 
ers  having  more  settled  intentions.  The  dislike  the 
American  population  has  to  them  once  abating — that 
temporary  dislike  which  all  races  of  men  who  differ 
in  aspect,  in  ideas,  in  religion  from  one  another  always 


172  INTRODUCTION  OF  EASTERN  HABITS. 

entertain — the  general  principles  of  the  system  of  the 
Republic  will  come  into  powerful  effect.  The  facility 
for  acquiring  proprietorship  in  land,  the  certainty  of 
its  tenure,  are  temptations  that  no  laboring  class  can 
resist.  In  the  same  street  will  be  seen  the  Joss- 
house,  the  Synagogue,  the  Mosque,  the  Chapel,  the 
Church. 

Considering  that,  under  the  circumstances  of  the 
case,  the  individuals  who  are  thus  destined  to  disturb 
the  Pacific  Coast  must  necessarily  issue  from  the  low 
er  social  grades  of  the  countries  from  which  they 
come,  their  admixture  with  the  native  American  pop 
ulation  can  not  be  viewed  without  anxiety.  The  Pa 
cific  States  will  do  well  to  look  to  their  public  schools, 
laying  broad  and  munificent  foundations  for  their  ed 
ucational  system,  giving  no  encoiiragement  to  the  use 
of  any  foreign  tongue,  and  fusing  into  their  mass,  as 
thoroughly  and  rapidly  as  may  be,  their  inevitable 
hybrid  population. 

With  Eastern  blood  will  necessarily  come  Eastern 
thoughts,  and  the  attempt  at  Eastern  social  habits.  I 
have  already  (page  113)  referred  to  the  political  pow 
er  of  polygamic  institutions.  It  must  not  be  forgot 
ten  that  they  are  in  accordance  with  the  sentiments 
of  Asiatics.  Especially,  also,  should  it  be  borne  in 
mind  that  they  have  already  obtained  a  firm  root  in 
Utah.  There  is  imminent  danger  of  the  spread  of 
those  institutions  in  the  West.  As  men  approach 


THE  POLYGAMY  OF  UTAH.  173 

the  confines  of  Asia,  they  seem  to  be  affected  by  its 
moral  atmosphere. 

Nor  should  we  overlook  an  additional  source  of 
disturbance  from  the  population  of  Mexico — a  base,  a 
hybrid  population.  Whatever  may  be  the  political 
destiny  of  that  country,  contamination  from  it  is  un 
avoidable.  The  day  will  come  when  the  sentiments 
expressed  by  the  Emperor  Claudius  in  relation  to  the 
Gauls,  which  I  have  quoted,  page  149,  will  be  urged 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  in  relation  to  these 
people. 

For  the  sake  of  drawing  my  reader's  attention  for 
cibly  to  this  prospective  state  of  affairs  on  the  west 
ern  front  of  the  Republic,  I  have  dwelt  in  some  de 
tail  on  the  history  of  Arabian  conquests  and  their  ex 
traordinary  permanence.  If  he  should  see  this  inter 
esting  subject  in  the  same  light  that  it  presents  it 
self  to  me,  I  would  ask  his  perusal  of  Chapters  XL 
and  X\7I.  of  my  "  History  of  the  Intellectual  Devel 
opment  of  Europe." 

Whatever  may  at  present  be  the  strength  of  the 
sentiment  of  disapproval  or  even  of  detestation  with 
which  we  regard  polygamy,  we  can  not  conceal  from 
ourselves  the  strong  temptations  that  will  arise  for 
its  adoption  in  the  West.  We  should  remember  how 
easily  and  how  often,  in  an  evil  hour,  great  and  even 
religious  communities  may  be  led  astray.  Our  pres 
ent  abhorrence  of  this  vice  is  no  greater  than  was  the 


174  THE  POLYGAMY  OF  UTAH. 

abhorrence  of  human  slavery  in  England  a  few  years 
ago.  Yet,  because  of  a  contingent  political  advan 
tage — the  division  and  consequent  neutralization  of 
a  maritime  rival — that  country  forgot  her  noblest 
philanthropic  traditions,  and  arrayed  herself  in  moral 
support  of  the  slave  power  in  America.  • 

Warned  by  such  a  conspicuous  example,  we  need 
not  be  surprised  if  hereafter  there  should  be  politi 
cians — statesmen  I  will  not  call  them — who  may  see 
in  ar;  extension  of  the  practices  of  Utah  a  solution  of 
the  portentous  problem  of  the  admixture  of  the  Pa= 
cific  races.  As  the  Saracens  Arabized  the  north  of 
Africa  in  the  course  of  a  very  few  years,  they  may 
believe  that  it  is  possible  to  Americanize  those  races. 

Fifty  years  ago  it  would  have  been  thought  incred 
ible  that  a  polygamic  state  should  exist  in  the  midst 
of  Christian  communities  of  European  descent  *  and 
yet  a  community,  whose  foundation  rests  on  a  relig 
ious  imposture,  has  carried  before  our  eyes  that  insti 
tution  into  practical  effect,  and  is  fast  becoming  rich 
and  powerful. 

There  is  always  a  probability  of  the  public  adop 
tion  of  political  ideas  when  they  concur  with  the  in 
terests  or  passions  of  those  to  whom  they  are  ad 
dressed  ;  and  conversely,  it  is  from  a  want  of  such  a 
concordance  that  attempts  at  reformation  and  eleva 
tion  of  the  ideas  of  men  so  often  prove  failures.  We 
can  not  deny  the  melancholy  fact  that  men  are 


THE  POLYGAMY  OF  UTAH.  175 

guided  much  less  by  their  own  perceptions  of  right 
and  wrong  than  by  an  apprehension  of  what  public 
opinion  in  the  case  may  be.  Many  will  brave  their 
own  conscience  —  few  society.  Conscience  may  be 
mystified  and  blunted,  but  over  society  an  individual 
has  very  little  control.  Hence  it  comes  to  pass  that 
personal  morality  is  too  often  much  more  the  conse 
quence  of  public  opinion  than  of  individual  con 
science  ;  and  hence  the  explanation  of  the  remark  so 
often  made  by  observant  persons,  that  men  who  are 
knaves  as  individuals,  may  yet,  as  a  community,  be 
honest. 

This  lax  morality  may,  I  believe,  be  more  conspic 
uously  detected  among  trading  communities  than 
among  agriculturists.  Life  among  the  latter  is  indi 
vidually  more  independent,  but  position  in  the  former 
turns  altogether  on  the  consideration  and  credit  that 
a  man  enjoys  among  those  with  whom  he  has  deal 
ings.  He  is  constrained  to  comport  himself  according 
to  their  standard. 

Where  public  opinion  has  been  dexterously  man 
ufactured,  and  the  interests  and  passions  of  men  are 
insidiously  provoked,  very  serious  political  faults  may 
be  perpetrated.  No  community  can  be  altogether 
safe  from  such  risks. 

Since  the  decline  of  the  Roman  Empire,  no  nation 
has  been  called  upon  to  deal  with  questions  of  civil 
policy  so  extensive  and  profound  as  those  that  must 


176  EUROPE  AND  AMERICA. 

necessarily  occupy  the  attention  of  the  Republic.  In 
Europe,  the  nations  that  have  risen  to  what  is  there 
considered  to  be  imposing  power  occupy  compara 
tively  small  geographical  surfaces;  the  problems  in 
which  they  are  interested  have  not  the  grandeur  as 
sumed  by  analogous  problems  here.  With  them,  for 
instance,  the  effect  of  climate  is  but  small,  the  conse 
quences  of  emigration  easily  foreseen.  Though  those 
nations  may  assume  very  striking  importance  as  re 
gards  the  distribution  of  wealth,  they  sink  at  once 
into  insignificance  as  respects  its  creation.  There  is 
nothing  in  Europe  that  answers  to  the  vast  deposits 
of  metals  and  minerals  in  North  America — nothing 
to  its  cotton,  its  tobacco — nothing  to  the  agriculture 
of  the  prairies.  The  whole  population  of  that  con 
tinent  could  be  settled  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and 
find  itself  all  the  better  for  the  change. 

Still  more,  those  nations  are  fettered  by  the  results 
of  the  policy  of  past  ages.  They  perpetually  find 
stumbling-blocks  in  their  way  that  are  moss-covered 
and  rotten,  yet  sufficiently  impracticable  to  arrest 
their  advancement  completely.  With  the  noblest 
aspirations,  what  can  Italy  do  in  presence  of  the 
anachronism  of  Home  ?  In  France  it  is  not  the  ar 
bitrary  will  of  the  sovereign,  but  the  public  necessity 
that  denies  free  speech  and  a  free  press. 

But  Europe  never  possessed  that  inappreciable 
privilege  that  has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  America — unity. 


EUROPE  AND  AMERICA.  177 

The  intentions  of  her  greatest  and  best  men  are 
thwarted  by  the  impossibility  of  securing  consistent 
actions  among  so  many  rival  and  antagonistic  states. 
It  is  because  of  her  want  of  it  that,  after  so  many 
centuries  of  trial,  she  has  attained  to  no  settled 
maxims  of  political  life,  and  to  no  definite  religious 
opinions. 

Whatever,  therefore,  can  make  firm  the  bond  of 
union  on  this  continent,  will  aid  in  securing  develop 
ment  of  national  power.  An  inflexible  resolution,  in 
the  midst  of  the  unparalleled  sacrifices  of  the  civil 
war,  has  shown  how  thoroughly  that  principle  is  ap 
preciated.  Was  ever  such  a  thing  known  in  the 
world  before  as  the  spending  of  eight  hundred  mil 
lions  of  dollars  a  year,  for  four  successive  years,  to 
sustain  an  idea?  That  fact  betokens  'the  future 
grandeur  of  the  Great  Republic !  Climate  and  Emi 
gration  may  tend  to  divide ;  but  as  long  as  that  prin. 
ciple  is  so  steadfastly  kept  in  view  and  so  irresistibly 
maintained,  the  means  will  certainly  be  found  to  neu 
tralize  their  prejudicial  effects. 

M 


CHAPTEE  III. 

ON   THE   POLITICAL    FORCE    OF  IDEAS. 

Ideas  act  on  masses  of  men  in  a  double  manner,  sometimes  ex 
erting  an  impelling,  sometimes  a  resisting  agency. 

The  Impelling  power  of  Ideas  is  illustrated  in  the  case  of  Mo 
hammedanism,  of  which  the  political  development  as  attained 
in  Spain,  and  the  Intellectual,  as  manifested  in  the  philoso 
phy  of  Averroes,  are  described. 

The  Resisting  power  of  Ideas  is  illustrated  in  the  case  of  the 
Jews.  A  brief  sketch  is  given  of  their  history,  their  sacred 
writings,  and  the  modifications  impressed  upon  them  by  the 
Persians,  Grevks,  and  Arabs.  It  is  their  Messianic  idea  that 
resists  the  influences  of  Conquest  and  Time,  and  preserves  them 
a  separate  people  among  all  nations. 

Man  may  comprehend  Nature  and  subjugate  physical  forces. 
Under  this  Idea  modern  civilization  is  advancing.  It  is  il 
lustrated  by  a  sketch  Qf  certain  scientific  discoveries  and  use 
ful  inventions. 

The  ecclesiastical  causes  of  the  European  opposition  to  Science 
are  explained,  and  the  duty  of  America  to  develop  and  protect 
free  thought  is  enforced. 

PHILOSOPHICAL  conceptions  of  the  historical  prog 
ress  of  humanity  must  not  be  altogether  of  a  material 
kind.  Thus  far,  however,  such  has  been  the  view  of 
fered  in  the  preceding  pages,  which  have  been  occu 
pied  with  a  consideration  of  the  control  of  Climate 
over  the  constitution  of  man,  and  the  Effects  of  Emi 
gration.  To  this  we  have  now  to  add  the  impelling 
and  resisting  power  of  Ideas.  Ideas  force  humanity 


ARABIA.  179 

forward,  though  Nature  has  prepared  the  path  along 
which  the  course  must  be  run.  They  also  furnish  a 
bulwark  that  can  resist  the  attacks  of  Time. 

An  Idea  may  therefore  possess  supreme  political 
influence.  A  sentiment  expressed  by  a  few  words 
may  break  up  nationalities  venerable  for  their  antiq 
uity,  rearrange  races  of  men,  and  revolutionize  the 
world. 

Many  instances  present  themselves  as  suitable  il 
lustrations  of  these  truths.  Rome,  for  example,  would 
yield  an  appropriate  text.  I  turn,  however,  from 
cases  which  perhaps  might  lose  their  weight  because 
of  our  familiarity  with  them,  to  one  which,  partly 
from  prejudice  and  partly  from  policy,  has  hitherto 
been  very  much  sequestered  from  our  view. 

On  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Ked  Sea,  a  fringe  of 
fertile  land  received  from  the  people  of  antiquity  the 
designation  of  Arabia  the  Fortunate,  or  Happy.  This 
Paradise,  described  as  aland  of  incense  and  perfumes, 
recedes  through  low  ranges  of  interior  hills,  and  loses 
itself  in  endless  deserts  of  sand.  Of  its  mountains, 
some,  as  Horeb  and  Sinai,  have  become  sanctified  in 
the  history  of  the  human  race.  In  the  dry  season 
scarce  ever  a  cloud  is  seen  on  the  sky.  It  is  a  river- 
less  country,  but  in  the  rainy  season  the  gorges  con 
tain  rushing  torrents.  In  different  localities  the  tem 
perature  greatly  varies :  there  are  nights  that  are 
freezing  cold,  and  days  when  the  heat  rises  to  100°. 


180  ARABIA. 

Here  and  there,  embosomed  in  the  sand,  are  beauti 
ful  oases,  like  those  of  Africa,  natural  gardens  of  won 
derful  luxuriance  in  the  midst  of  a  frightful  sterility. 
The  hot  breath  of  the  simoom  that  blows  over  the 
sultry  waste  feels  as  though  it  issued  from  the  mouth 
of  a  furnace.  The  moving  and  bending  columns  that 
seem  to  reach  to  the  sky,  into  which  eddying  whirl 
winds  wrork  up  the  shifting  sands-,  are  said,  in  the" 
poetical  imagery  of  the  inhabitants,  to  conceal  be 
neath  their  dusty  veil  fleeting  genii  of  the  desert, 
angels  of  desolation,  bowing  their  heads  in  homage  to 
the  Lord. 

A  paradise  it  was  truly  called.  See  of  what  valu 
able  products  it  is  the  native  home — the  sugar-cane, 
the  banana,  the  tamarind,  the  cotton-tree,  the  nutmeg, 
and  the  melon  in  all  its  varieties.  Here  flourish  the 
date-tree,  the  cocoa,  the  fan-leaved  palm,  the  fig,  orange, 
vine,  quince,  apricot,  almond,  and  plantain.  The  hor 
ticulturist  may  envy  its  botany ;  the  physician  bestow 
a  nod  of  approval  on  a  land  that  has  given  him  the 
castor-oil  plant  and  senna,  and  brought  him  many  a 
profitable  fee. 

How  much  has  the*  morality  of  the  world  been  im 
proved  by  coffee,  first  brought  from  Arabia !  A  sub 
stitute  for  intoxicating  drinks,  it  has  refined  society, 
imparted  innocent  comfort  to  individuals,  and  peace 
to  many  a  family.  We  abuse  the  abstemious  relig 
ion  of  Mecca,  the  berry  of  Mocha  we  use. 


MOHAMMED.  181 

The  wilderness  of  Arabia  is  the  birthplace  of  that 
most  noble  of  all  quadrupeds,  the  horse.  Though  his 
neck  is  clothed  with  thunder,  and  the  glory  of  his 
nostrils  is  terrible — though  he  paweth  in  the  valley 
and  rejoice th  in  his  strength — though  he  swalloweth 
the  ground  in  his  fierceness  and  rage,  neither  can  he 
persuade  himself  that  it  is  the  sound  of  the  trumpet 
— though  he  smelleth  the  battle  afar  off,  the  thunder 

O  ' 

of  the  captains  and  the  shouting,  he  plays  with  the 
Bedouin  children  that  are  round  his  master's  tent. 
How  deeply  has  a  love  of  that  beautiful  creature  af 
fected  the  civilization  of  Europe  !  What  had  it  not 
to  do  with  chivalry  !  It  turned  the  bloodthirsty  war 
rior  into  a  gentle  and  courteous  knight. 

If,  as  we  have  seen,  Climate  and  the  aspect  of  Na 
ture  give  a  special  character  to  humanity,  what  kind 
of  men  should  we  expect  in  a  riverless  and  forestless 
country — the  companions  of  the  camel  and  the  horse  ? 
With  a  just  pride,  the  inhabitants  boast  that  their 
land  has  been  the  birthplace  of  the  sciences  and  of 
the  religion  of  half  the  human  race. 

In  the  year  569  was  born  at  Mecca,  a  little  town 
in  that  country,  now  sacred  in  the  eyes  of  all  Mussul- 
men,  a  man  who  has  exerted  an  enduring  influence 
on  the  human  race — Mohammed,  by  Europeans  sur- 
named  the  Impostor.  Though  descended  from  an  an 
cient  and  proud  family,  his  early  life  was  spent  in 
penury ;  and  while  only  yet  a  boy  of  thirteen  years, 


182  CAUSE  OF  MENTAL  DELUSIONS. 

he  was  constrained  so  completely  to  give  himself  up 
to  the  pursuits  of  trade,  that  his  enemies  have  affirm 
ed  he  never  knew  how  to  read  or  write.  Industry, 
and  marriage  with  an  opulent  widow,  whose  agent  he 
had  been  for  a  length  of  time,  gave  him  wealth  at 
last,  and  enabled  him,  before  he  had  reached  forty,  to 
abandon  his  mercantile  pursuits. 

In  very  remote  times — so  remote  that  the  circum 
stance  had  almost  degenerated  into  a  legend — there 
had  fallen  at  Mecca,  from  the  sky,  a  mass  of  iron,  such 
as  is  now  termed  a  meteoric  stone.  The  primitive  in 
habitants  had  guarded  this  celestial  body  with  relig 
ious  care,  erected  a  temple  for  its  custody,  and  wor 
shiped  it  as  a  god.  Their  idolatry  had  also  extended 
to  the  adoration  of  certain  graven  forms. 

Whether  through  the  self-denial  of  a  too  abstemi 
ous  life,  or  through  that  profound  religious  melan 
choly  into  which  good  men  who  have  had  large  ex 
perience  of  the  vanities  of  the  world  sometimes  fall, 
Mohammed  became  the  victim  of  mental  illusion. 
There  were  unseen  voices  that  whispered  to  him,  and 
phantoms  that  he  saw.  In  lucid  intervals  he  sus 
pected  the  evil  into  which  he  was  falling,  and  warned 
his  wife  Chadizah  that  he  feared  he  might  become  in 
sane. 

From  the  Jewish  anchorets  who  of  old  sought  a  re 
treat  beneath  the  shade  of  the  palms  of  Engaddi,  who 
beguiled  their  weary  hours  in  the  chanting  of  psalms 


CAUSE  OF  MENTAL  DELUSIONS.         183 

by  the  bitter  waters  of  the  Dead  Sea — from  the  phil 
osophic  Hindoo,  who  sought  for  happiness  in  bodily 
inaction  and  mental  exercise,  to  the  preaching  soldier, 
who  enforces  his  opinions  by  the  edge  of  his  sword, 
the  stages  of  delusion  are  numerous  and  successive. 
But,  so  far  from  being  impostures,  these  are  nothing 
more  than  may  be  produced  at  any  time.  In  the 
brain  of  man,  impressions  of  whatever  he  has  seen  or 
heard,  of  whatever  has  been  made  manifest  to  him  by 
his  other  senses,  nay,  even  the  vestiges  of  his  former 
thoughts,  are  stored  up.  These  traces  are  most  vivid 
at  first,  but  by  degrees  they  decline  in  force,  though 
they  probably  never  completely  die  out.  During 
our  waking  hours,  while  we  are  perpetually  receiving 
new  impressions  from  things  that  surround  us,  such 
vestiges  are  overpowered,  and  can  not  attract  the  at 
tention  of  the  mind ;  but  in  the  period  of  sleep,  when 
external  influences  cease,  they  emerge  from  oblivion, 
and  the  mjnd,  submitting  to  the  delusion,  groups 
them  into  the  fantastic  forms  of  dreams.  By  the  use 
of  opium  and  other  drugs  which  can  blunt  our  sen- 
'sibility  to  passing  events,  these  phantasms  may  be 
evoked.  They  also  offer  themselves  in  the  delirium 
of  fevers  and  in  the  hour  of  death. 

It  is  immaterial  in  what  manner  or  by  what  agency 
our  susceptibility  to  the  impressions  of  surrounding 
objects  is  benumbed,  whether  by  drugs,  or  sleep,  or 
disease ;  as  soon  as  their  force  is  no  greater  than  that 


184  CAUSE  OF  MENTAL  ILLUSIONS 

of  forms  already  registered  in  the  brain,  these  last 
will  appear  before  us,  and  deceptions  and  apparitions 
are  the  result.  No  man  can  submit  to  long-continued 
and  rigorous  fasting  without  becoming  the  subject  of 
these  hallucinations;  and  the  more  he  enfeebles  his 
organs  of  sense,  the  more  vivid  is  the  exhibition,  the 
more  profound  the  illusion. 

The  images  that  may  thus  emerge  in  the  brain 
have  been  classed  by  physiologists  among  the  phe 
nomena  of  inverse  vision  or  cerebral  sight.  From 
the  moral  effect  to  which  they  can  give  rise,  we  are 
very  liable  to  connect  them  with  the  supernatural. 
In  truth,  they  are,  however,  the  natural  result  of  the 
action  of  the  nervous  mechanism,  which  of  necessity 
produces  them  when  in  the  proper  condition.  It  can 
act  either  directly,  as  in  ordinary  vision,  or  inversely, 
as  in  cerebral  sight,  and  in  this  respect  resembles 
those  instruments  which  equally  yield  a  musical 
sound  whether'  the  air  is  blown  through  them  or 
drawn  in.  Yet,  natural  as  their  production  is,  such 
is  the  constitution  of  man,  that  the  bravest  and 
wisest  encounter  these  fictions  of  their  own  imagina 
tion  with  awe.  Few  things,  in  fact,  have  exerted  a 
greater  influence  on  the  career  of  the  human  race 
than  these  spiritual  visitations.  The  visions  of  Mo 
hammed  have  ended  in  tincturing  the  daily  life  of 
half  the  people  of  Asia  and  Africa  for  a  thousand 
years.  A  spectre  that  came  into  the  camp  at  Sardis 


CAUSE  OF  MENTAL  DELUSIONS.  185 

unnerved  the  heart  of  Brutus,  and  thereby  put  an  end 
to  the  political  system  that  had  made  the  great  re 
public  the  arbitress  of  the  world. 

It  is  the  localization  of  the  phantom — that  creation 
of  the  brain — amono;  the  bodies  and  things  around 

o  o 

us,  that  gives  force  to  these  illusions.  The  form  of  a 
cloud  no  bigger  than  the  hand  is  perhaps  first  seen 
floating  over  the  carpet ;  but  this,  as  the  eye  follows 
it,  takes  on  a  definite  shape,  and  the  sufferer  sees  with 
dismay  a  moping  raven  perched  on  some  of  the  dis 
tant  articles  of  furniture.  Or,  out  of  an  indistinct 
cloud,  female  faces,  sometimes  of  surprising  loveliness, 
emerge,  a  new  face  succeeding  as  a  former  dies  away. 
The  mind,  ever  ready  to  practice  imposture  upon  it 
self,  will  at  last  accompany  the  illusion  with  grotesque 
or  dreadful  inventions.  A  sarcophagus,  painted  after 
the  manner  of  the  Egyptians,  distresses  the  visionary 
with  the  rolling  of  its  eyes.  Sometimes,  instead  of  a 
solitary  phantom  intruding  itself  among  recognized 
realities,  as  the  shade  of  a  deceased  friend  opens  the 
door  and  noiselessly  steps  in,  the  complicated  scenes 
of  a  true  drama  are  displayed — the  brain  becomes,  as 
it  were,  a  theatre.  According  as  the  travel  or  the 
reading  of  the  sick  man  may  have  been,  the  illusion 
takes  a  style — black  vistas  of  Oriental  architecture 
that  stretch  away  into  infinite  night — temples,  and 
fanes,  and  the  battlemented  walls  of  cities,  colossal 
Pharaohs  sitting  in  everlasting  silence  with  their 


186  THE  DELUSIONS  OF  MOHAMMED. 

hands  upon  their  knees  "  I  saw,"  says  De  Quincey. 
in  his  Confessions  of  an  Opium  Eater,  "  as  I  lay  awake 
in  bed,  vast  processions  that  passed  along  in  mourn 
ful  pomp ;  friezes  of  never-ending  stories,  that  to  my 
feelings  were  as  sad  and  solemn  as  if  they  were  sto 
ries  drawn  from  times  before  (Edipus  or  Priam,  be 
fore  Tyre,  before  Memphis.  And,  at  the  same  time,  a 
corresponding  change  took  place  in  my  dreams;  a 
theatre  seemed  suddenly  opened  and  lighted  up  with 
in  my  brain,  which  presented  nightly  spectacles  of 
more  than  earthly  splendor." 

Mohammed,  having  retired  to  the  solitude  of  the 
desert,  devoted  himself  to  meditation,  fasting,  prayer, 
and  became  the  victim  of  these  cerebral  delusions. 
He  was  visited  by  supernatural  appearances,  myste 
rious  voices  accosting  him  as  the  Prophet  of  God.  It 
is  related  that,  as  he  sat  alone  with  Chadizah  his 
wife,  a  shadow  entered  the  tent.  "Dost  thou  see 
aught  ?"  said  Chadizah,  who  remarked  his  agitation, 
and  who,  after  the  manner  of  Arabian  matrons,  wore 
her  veil.  al  do,"  said  the  Prophet;  whereupon  she 
uncovered  her  face  and  said,  "  Dost  thou  see  it  now  T 
"  I  do  not."  "  Glad  tidings  to  thee,  O  Mohammed !" 
exclaimed  Chadizah ;  "  it  is  an  angel,  for  he  has  re 
spected  my  unveiled  face ;  an  evil  spirit  would  not." 
As  his  disease  advanced,  these  spectres  became  more 
frequent.  It  was  from  one  of  them  that  he  received 
the  divine  commission  to  preach.  "  I,"  said  his  wife, 


THE  FORCE  OF  AN  IDEA.  187 

"will  be  thy  first  believer,"  and  they  knelt  down  in 
prayer  together.  Since  that  eventful  night  nine  thou 
sand  millions  of  human  beings  have  acknowledged 
him  to  be  a  prophet  of  God. 

A  preaching  soldier !    The  qualities  implied  in  that 
character  belong  only  to  the  highest  rank  of  men. 
Of  such  was  Mohammed.     His  theology  was  simple 
— u  There  is  but  one  God ;"  but  to  that  he  also  add 
ed,  "  and  Mohammed  is  his  Prophet." 

The  great  earthquake  of  Lisbon,  in  1755,  was  felt 
from  Norway  to  Morocco,  from  Poland  to  the  West 
Indies.  It  absolutely  lifted  the  whole  bed  of  the 
North  Atlantic  Ocean.  What  a  vast  physical  im 
pulse  that  implies ! 

But  is  there  no  political  force  in  an  Idea?  The 
dogma  of  Mohammed  sent  a  quivering  thrill  through 
the  souls  of  men  from  the  Gulf  of  Guinea  to  the  Chi 
nese  Sea.  Three  continents — Asia,  Africa,  Europe- 
rocked  to  their  foundations  under  it.  Empires  ven 
erable  for  their  antiquity,  religions  covered  with  the 
hoar  of  antiquity,  vanished  away.  As  the  breath  can 
melt  the  graceful  ice-forms  that  incrust  a  window  on 
a  winter's  morning,  so  the  breath  of  the  Prophet  melt 
ed  away  whole  races  of  men  and  their  works. 

There  is  something  wonderful  in  this  propagation 
of  thought  from  man  to  man.  As  a  candle  may  be 
lighted  from  a  flame,  and  again  and  again  others  may 
be  kindled  in  succession  one  from  another  without 


188  PROGRESS  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM. 

any  impairment  of  the  intrinsic  brightness,  so  thought 
passes  from  one  to  another,  ever  growing,  never  losing 
its  innate  force.  That  thought — the  oneness  of  God, 
and  a  divine  mission  imposed  on  a  man — passed  forth 
from  the  Prophet  and  was  received  by  his  trusting 
wife.  In  the  departing  twilight  of  an  Arabian  sum 
mer's  evening  they  knelt  down,  hand  in  hand,  at  the 
entrance  of  their  tent.  They  prayed  to  the  All-mer 
ciful  that  he  would  take  pity  on  them  and  show  them 
what  to  do.  In  a  few  months  the  fire  had  kindled  in 
a.  few  zealous  disciples.  It  occasioned  a  brief  strug 
gle  in  Arabia :  there  wrere  battles.  God  gave  victory 
to  his  servant :  the  country  bowed  under  the  convin 
cing  argument  of  his  sword.  Within  twelve  years 
after  the  death  of  their  great  leader  his  followers  had 
reduced  the  chief  fortified  places  in  Persia,  Syria,  Afri 
ca.  They  quickly  extended  their  dominion  a  thou 
sand  miles  east  and  a  thousand  west.  The  churches 
of  Syria  and  of  Asia  Minor,  that  garden  of  the  world, 
were  utterly  destroyed;  above  all,  Jerusalem,  the 
Holy  City  of  the  East,  with  all  its  touching  recollec 
tions,  was  seized.  In  Persia,  its  native  place,  Magian- 
ism,  a  religion  venerable  for  its  antiquity,  went  down 
before  the  storm ;  in  India,  Vedaism,  the  worship  of 
Nature,  the  pantheistic  belief  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  millions  of  men,  met  its  rival  and  master ;  in 
China,  Buddhism,  the  settled  creed  of  four  hundred 
millions,  shared  the  same  fate.  The  tempest  of  Sara- 


PROGRESS  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM.  180 

cen  armies  pushed  its  conquering  career  along  the 
north  coast  of  Africa.  Confronted  by  the  impassable 
Atlantic,  the  Arabs  turned  aside  into  Spain,  and  held 
that  country  for  as  long  as  it  is  from  the  Norman  con 
quest  of  England  to  our  day.  Almost  as  if  by  a  mira 
cle,  the  rest  of  Europe  escaped. 

"There  is  but  one  God,  and  Mohammed  is  his 
Prophet."  The  vanquished  must  make  his  choice  be 
tween  that  confession,  or  tribute,  or  death. 

Is  there,  then,  no  political  force  in  an  Idea  ?  Gold 
and  silver,  and  iron  and  coal,  and  cotton  and  oil,  ma 
terial  things  that  are  forced  out  of  the  earth,  are  these 
the  divinities?  An  idea  can  shake  humanity  to  its 
foundations,  an  idea  can  govern  the  world. 

It  is  impossible  to  compress  into  the  limited  space 
at  my  disposal  the  long  story  of  the  consequences  of 
all  these  wonderful  political  events.  It  is  needful  to 
make  a  selection,  and  I  choose  that  which  has  proved 
to  be  the  most  closely  connected  with  the  history  of 
Western  Europe,  and  therefore  with  our  own — the 
Saracen  conquest  of  Spain. 

Scarcely  had  the  Arabs  become  firmly  settled  in 
Spain  before  they  commenced  a  brilliant  career. 
Adopting  what  had  now  become  the  established  pol 
icy  of  the  Commanders  of  the  Faithful,  the  Khalifs 
of  Cordova  distinguished  themselves  as  patrons  of 
learning,  and  set  an  example  of  refinement  strongly 
contrasting  with  the  condition  of  the  native  European 


190  THE  SARACENS  IN  SPAIN. 

princes.  Cordova,  under  their  administration,  boast 
ed  of  more  than  200,000  houses  and  more  than  a  mil 
lion  of  inhabitants.  After  sunset  a  man  might  walk 
through  it  in  a  straight  line  for  ten  miles  by  the  light 
of  the  public  lamps :  seven  hundred  years  after  this 
time  there  was  not  so  much  as  one  public  lamp  in 
London.  Its  streets  were  solidly  "paved:  in  Paris, 
centuries  subsequently,  whoever  stepped  over  his 
threshold  on  a  rainy  day,  stepped  up  to  his  ankles  in 
mud.  The  Spanish  Mohammedans  had  brought  with 
them  all  the  luxuries  of  Asia.  Their  residences  stood 
forth  against  the  clear  blue  sky,  or  were  embosomed 
in  woods.  They  had  polished  marble  balconies  over 
hanging  orange  gardens,  courts  with  cascades  of  wa 
ter,  retiring-rooms  vaulted  with  stained  glass  speckled 
with  gold ;  the  floors  and  walls  were  of  exquisite  mo 
saics.  Here  a  fountain  of  quicksilver  shot  up  in  a 
glistening  spray,  the  glittering  particles  falling  with 
a  tranquil  sound  like  fairy  bells ;  there,  apartments 
into  which  cool  air  was  drawn  in  summer  from  flower- 
gardens.  Clusters  of  frail  marble  columns  surprised 
the  beholder  with  the  vast  weights  they  bore.  In 
the  boudoirs  of  the  Sultanas  they  were  sometimes 
of  verd  antique,  and  incrusted  with  lapis  -  lazuli. 
Through  pipes  of  metal,  water  both  warm  and  cold, 
to  suit  the  season  of  the  year,  ran  into  baths  of  mar 
ble  ;  in  niches,  where  the  current  of  air  could  be  ar 
tificially  directed,  hung  dripping  alcarazzas.  There 


THE  SARACENS  IN  SPAIN  •  191 

were  whispering -galleries  for  the  amusement  of  the 
women,  labyrinths  and  marble  play-courts  for  the 
children,  for  the  master  himself  grand  libraries.  At 
this  brilliant  focus  barbarian  Europe  lighted  its  lamp 
of  civilization. 

Such  were  the  Khalifs  of  the  West;  such  their 
splendor,  their  luxury.  Considering  the  enchanting 
country  over  which  they  ruled,  it  was  not  without 
reason  that  they  caused  to  be  engraven  on  the  public 
seal,  "  The  servant  of  the  Most  Merciful  rests  content 
ed  in  the  decrees  of  God."  What  more,  indeed,  could 
they  have  had  ?  But,  considering  also  the  evil  end 
of  all  this  happiness  and  pomp,  we  may.  well  appre 
ciate  the  solemn  truth  which  these  monarch  s,  in  their 
day  of  pride  and  power,  grandly  wrote  in  the  beauti 
ful  mosaics  on  their  palace  walls — an  ever -recurring 
monition  to  him.  who  owes  dominion  to  the  sword — 
"  There  is  no  conqueror  but  God." 

From  these  political  events  I  turn  to  philosophical 
results,  with  a  view  of  showing  what,  in  that  direc 
tion,  were  the  consequences  of  the  fundamental  Ara 
bian  idea. 

History  conspicuously  teaches  that  there  will  al 
ways  emerge  from  every  great  religious  confession 
men  who  endeavor  to  cast  light  on  its  principles  by 
the  aid  of  human  reason — men  who  will  philosophize. 
If,  therefore,  we  desire  to  measure  the  force  of  an  idea 
and  to  master  all  its  bearings  intelligently,  we  must 


192  MOHAMMEDAN  PHILOSOPHY. 

add  to  the  estimate  of  its  material  or  political  moment 
um  an  appreciation  of  its  philosophical  development. 
That  is  what  I  now  proceed  to  do  in  the  present  case. 
Within  a  century  after  Mohammed's  death,  so  act 
ive  was  the  mental  movement  among  his  followers 
that  they  began  to  dispute  about  free-will  and  pre 
destination.  Soon  in  Bagdad  controversies  arose  re- 

o 

spectmg  the  attributes  of  God,  and  philosophical 
schools  were  founded,  the  branches  of  which  ramified 
along  the  coast  of  Africa  into  Spain,  and  in  the  oppo 
site  direction  extended  into  the  far  East.  We  com 
prehend  at  once  the  spirit  of  these  schools  when  we 
consider  the  bearing  of  the  maxim  of  one  destined 
eventually  to  stand  at  the  head  of  all  the  rest  *  "•  The 
special  religion  of  philosophers  is  to  study  what  is 
sublime,  and  the  most  sublime  worship  that  can  be 
rendered  to  God  is  the  study  of  his  works,"  There, 
if  I  mistake  not,  was  the  secret  of  the  Saracen  delight 
in  the  cultivation  of  natural  science. 

At  the  capture  of  Alexandria,  in  the  early  days  of 
Mohammedanism,  the  Saracens  were  brought  in  con 
tact  with  the  vestiges  of  Greek  philosophy.  The 
Christians  whom  they  found  there  had  long  leaned  to 
the  views  of  Plato,  whose  doctrines  had  been  cultiva 
ted  by  some  of  them  with  singular  effect.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Saracens  attached  themselves  to  Aris 
totle  as  their  scientific  guide.  And  thus  it  came  to 
pass  that  the  higher  aspects  of  Mohammedanism 


MOHAMMEDAN  PHILOSOPHY.  193 

were  tinctured  with,  the  opinions  of  that  great  Greek 
writer,  and  the  Arabians  held  to  be  the  expounders 
of  the  Aristotelian  philosophy.  A  very  great  mod 
ern  critic  regards  the  attitude  in  which  their  philo 
sophical  schools  stood  as  being  a  reaction  against 
Arabism;  but  with  diffidence  I  express  an  opposite 
opinion,  believing  that  the  doctrines  maintained  by 
them  were  the  necessary  extension  of  the  fundament 
al  dogma  of  their  faith,  that  there  is  but  one  God. 

That  extension  of  their  dogma  was  destined  to 
shake  Europe  to  its  centre.  Asserting  the  omnipres 
ence  of  God,  they  affirmed  that  all  human  souls  had 
emanated  from  him,  and  were  destined  to  return  ul 
timately  to  him,  as  a  drop  of  water  vaporized  from 
the  sea,  though  it  may  pass  through  a  thousand  vicis- 
situdes,  is  pressed  by  an  inevitable  destiny,  and  soon 
er  or  later  returns  to  the  sea  again.  They  developed 
these  ideas  into  a  vast  system,  distinguished  by  the 
vigor  of  its  conceptions  and  the  acuteness  of  its  rea 
soning.  It  is  needless  to  particularize  the  details  of 
that  system.  Its  general  tendency  may  be  gathered 
from  a  few  of  its  doctrines  and  sentiments. 

From  the  cardinal  idea  of  Mohammedanism  they 
therefore  affirmed  that  the  important  doctrine  of 
the  Indestructibility  and  Conservation  of  Force,  and 
its  necessary  consequence,  the  Unity  of  human  souls, 
arose.  They  were  the  authors  of  the  so-called  mod 
ern  theory  of  development,  anticipating  the  most  re- 

N 


194  MOHAMMEDAN  PHILOSOPHY. 

cent  writers  on  that  subject  in  many  of  its  details. 
Carrying  the  Fatalism  of  their  creed  into  their  philos 
ophy — and  it  is  such  incidents  as  these  that  persuade 
me  that  they  were  not  in  antagonism  to  Arabism— 
they  first  give  expression  to  that  portentous  maxim, 
"  What  can  be,  is."  The  adoption  of  such  opinions 
bore,  of  course,  at  once  on  the  great  truth  of  the  final 
accountability  of  man,  making  him  an  unresisting 
agent.  In  a  scientific  point  of  view  that  maxim  was 
carried  out  to  its  consequences,  as  against  the  doctrine 
known  as  that  of  final  causes.  In  the  luxurious  and 
splendid  society  of  Spain  such  sentiments  met  a  ready 
acceptance.  Listen  to  what  one  of  their  most  power 
ful  writers  says :  he  is  co-ordinating  the  grand  views 
of  Aristotle  on  the  world  of  living  things,  with  the 
Fatalism  of  Mohammed :  "  There  is  an  eternal  sea  of 
Being,  on  the  surface  of  which  play  the  oscillating 
and  variable  ripples  of  individuality.  God  deals  with 
the  general  laws  of  the  universe,  not  with  individuals. 
He  recognizes  the  ocean,  not  its  waves."  Interpreting 
the  abstract  doctrines  of  Aristotle  by  the  light  of 
their  natural  faith,  they  were  thus  brought  at  once  to 
the  self-indulgence  of  Epicurus  and  the  doubt  of 
Pyrrho.  They  said,  "  Permit  all  things,  believe  noth 
ing."  They  professed  that  their  conception  of  a  per 
fect  civil  state  is  merely  this :  "  It  is  that  which  re 
quires  neither  a  physician  nor  a  judge." 

These  statements  may  convey  an  idea  of  the  condi- 


AVERROISM.  195 

tion  to  which  philosophy  had  come,  not  only  among 
the  Spanish  Arabs,  but  also  among  those  of  Asia. 
The  real  birthplace  of  these  opinions  was  Bagdad. 
From  thence  they  ramified  over  all  the  Mohammedan 
world.  Of  their  writers,  the  most  celebrated  was 
Averroes.  Let  us  now  see  what  were  the  conse 
quences  of  these  things  in  Europe. 

It  was  during  the  pontificate  of  Innocent  III., 
about  the  year  1200,  that  the  Mendicant  orders  were 
established  in  the  Roman  Church.  The  course  of 
ages  had  brought  an  unintelligibility  into  public  wor 
ship.  Latin,  like  an  old  dialect,  had  become  obsolete ; 
the  modern  languages  were  forming.  Among  those 
classes,  daily  increasing  in  numbers,  whose  minds 
were  awakening,  an  earnest  desire  for  instruction  was 
arising.  Multitudes  were  crowding  to  hear  philo 
sophical  discourses  in  the  universities,  and  heresy  was 
spreading  very  fast.  But  it  was  far  from  being  con 
fined  to  the  intelligent.  The  lower  orders  furnished 
heretics  and  fanatics  too.  To  antagonize  the  labors 
of  these  zealots,  who,  if  they  had  been  permitted  to  go 
on  unchecked,  would  quickly  have  disseminated  their 
doctrines  through  all  classes  of  society,  the  Dominican 
and  Franciscan  orders  were  founded.  They  were  well 
adapted  to  their  duty.  It  was  their  business  to  move 
among  the  people,  preaching  to  them  in  their  own 
tono'ue  wherever  an  audience  could  be  collected. 

o 

A  very  few  years  were  needed  to  change  totally 


196  AVERROISM. 

the  aspect  of  the  mendicant  orders.  No  longer  rope- 
bound,  starving  zealots,  they  became  the  most  learned 
men  in  Europe,  filling  the  chief  professorships  in  the 
universities.  They  plunged  deeply  into  the  myste 
ries  of  Averroism,  and  were  soon  divided  into  parties. 
The  Dominicans  were  animated  with  the  fiercest  ha 
tred  against  the  Arabs,  denouncing  them  as  infidel 
Epicureans;  the  Franciscans  took  the  opposite  side, 
and  holding,  for  the  time,  control  of  the  University 
of  Paris,  made  it  a  focus  of  Averroism.  It  would  be 
in  vain  to  attempt  to  give  an  adequate  conception  of 
the  scholastic  disputations  that  arose.  Wherever 
there  was  a  monastery,  there  was  a  furious  debate. 
Italy  quickly  became  involved.  Commercial  prosper 
ity  had  concentrated  in  Venice  immense  wealth.  She 
had  a  powerful  aristocratic  class,  and  in  that  high  so 
ciety,  as  it  had  been  in  the  high  society  of  Spain, 
Averroism  became  fashionable.  It  held  fast  its  ground 
all  through  the  north  of  Italy.  In  a  letter  from  Co 
lurnbus,  dated  Hayti,  October,  1498,  he  says:  "Aver- 
roes  is  one  of  the  writers  who  has  made  me  divine 
the  existence  of  the  New  World."  That  remark  as 
sures  us  that,  in  common  with  the  progressive  men  of 
his  time,  the  Great  Admiral  was  familiar  with  the 
views  of  the  Spanish  Mohammedan.  They  were  now 
beginning  to  produce  important  physical  results,  and 
preparing  the  way  for  that  scientific  school  soon  to 
be  made  glorious  by  the  discoveries  of  Galileo,  Torri- 


INFLUENCE  OF  AVEKROISM  IN  EUROPE.       197 

celli,  and  the  Florentines.  The  proud  fabric  of  mod 
ern  science,  the  prodigies  of  modern  industry,  our  vast 
manufactures,  came  from  this  source. 

In  vain  the  Roman  authorities,  appreciating  the 
whole  state  of  the  case,  forbade  the  reading  of  the 
physical  works  of  Aristotle  in  the  University  off 
Paris.  The  contagion  broke  out  nearer  home  in  the 
University  of  Padua,  stimulated  and  sustained  by  the 
wealthy  people  of  Venice.  It  was  clear  that  strenu 
ous  measures  must  be  resorted  to  to  abate  the  trou 
ble.  The  Papal  government  took  its  course,  and  by 
the  Lateran  Council,  under  Leo  X.,  the  formal  con 
demnation  of  the  philosophy  of  Averroes  was  pro 
nounced. 

But  whoever  is  familiar  with  the  writings  of  the 
Italian  statesmen  will  trace  to  this  source  the  max 
ims  of  policy  indicated  by  them ;  and  those  maxims, 
spreading  from  Italy,  where  they  had  long  been  in 
use,  became  the  secret  principles  of  diplomacy  all 
over  Europe.  It  is  only  in  much  more  recent  times 
that  they  have  been  supplanted  by  purer  and  more 
honorable  means. 

Such  is  the  progress,  and  such,  often,  the  power  of 
an  Idea.  From  the  mind  in  which  it  first  originated 
it  may  spread,  until  at  last,  physically  and  intellect 
ually,  whole  continents  may  be  involved.  It  is  use 
less,  then,  to  say  that  ideas  have  no  force.  In  truth, 
they  govern  the  world.  A  tide  of  human  intelligence 


198  INFLUENCE  OF  ARABIAN  IDEAS. 

followed  the  movement  of  the  Arabian  Crescent  as  a 
watery  tide  in  the  sea  follows  the  motion  of  the  moon. 
It  may  be  that  some  of  the  results  in  the  particular, 
instance  we  have  been  considering  are  of  a  kind  to 
meet  our  disapproval ;  but  it  is  with  their  force,  not 
with  their  goodness  or  evil,  that  we  are  concerned. 

See  how  that  dogma  which  obtruded  itself  on  the 
disturbed  fancy  of  an  enthusiastic  Arab  in  his  tent, 
and  haunted  him  like  something  supernatural — a  dog 
ma  in  part  consisting  of  an  everlasting  truth  known 
from  the  old  times,  and  in  part  of  a  fiction  never  heard 
of  before — gradually  forced  its  way,  overthrowing  em 
pires  and  remodeling  societies !  Think  not  that  it 
made  its  way  by  the  aid  of  the  sword  alone.  The 
sword  may  for  a  moment  change  an  acknowledged 
national  creed,  but  it  can  not  affect  the  consciences 
of  men.  Profound  though  its  argument  be,  something 
far  more  profound  is  demanded  to  produce  results 
such  as  have  been  occupying  our  attention. 

The  idea  was  suitable  to  the  times,  and  to  the  con 
dition  of  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed.  There  lay 
the  secret  of  its  rapid  spread — its  intrinsic  force  on 
one  hand,  opportunity  on  the  other. 

Arabian  history  thus  gives  a  most  striking  instance 
of  the  impeU/ing  power  of  an  Idea.  No  better  exam 
ple  of  the  resisting  power  of  an  Idea  can  be  furnished 
than  that  afforded  by  Israelitish  history.  Ideas  have 
a  passive  as  well  as  an  active  political  force. 


THE  JEWS.  199 

What  is  it  that,  after  more  than  twenty  centuries 
of  conquest,  subjugation,  and  persecution — after  ex 
posure  to  all  the  allurements  of  idolatry  and  all  the 
fascinations  of  philosophy — after  transportation  to 
every  country  under  the  sun — what  is  it  that  has 
kept  this  Asiatic  people  an  uiidestroyed  nation? 
Their  idea  of  a  Messiah  or  a  Deliverer. 

In  the  earlier  periods  of  their  history  the  Jewish 
people  had  continually  shown  a  disposition  to  fall 
into  the  idolatries  of  the  surrounding  nations.  Even 
under  the  eyes  of  their  lawgiver  they  resumed  in  the 
desert  the  adoration  of  Apis,  which  they  had  learned 
in  Egypt,  and  animal  worship  is  but  a  step  removed 
from  Fetichism.  The  Syrian  tribes  among  whom  they 
were  subsequently  thrown  had  already  passed  to  the 
more  elevated  form  of  star -worship,  Baal  and  the 
crescent-horned  Astarte,  the  sun  and  the  moon,  being 
their  principal  divinities.  It  was  with  difficulty  that 
the  rulers  and  prophets  of  Israel  reclaimed  them  from 
their  perpetual  backslidings  to  these  idolatries. 

So  long  as  the  Jews  maintained  themselves  as  a 
compact  and  independent  nation,  these  idolatrous 
lapses  can  only  be  regarded  as  transient  maladies 
from  which  they  easily  recovered.  But  very  differ 
ent  was  it  after  the  conquest  of  Jerusalem  by  Nebu 
chadnezzar  and  the  carrying  of  the  people  into  cap 
tivity.  To  the  multitude,  who  had  ever  shown  a  dis 
position  to  adopt  the  idea  of  the  corporealization  of 


200  MAGIANISM. 

God,  and  who  had  estimated  the  weakness  or  power 
of  cities  in  warfare  with  their  enemies  by  the  weak 
ness  or  power  of  their  tutelary  deities  rather  than  by 
their  military  resources,  the  ruin  of  the  Temple  and 
the  downfall  of  the  Priesthood  was  a  moral  blow  the 
force  of  which  we  can  scarcely  estimate.  Their  com 
pulsory  residence  in  Assyria  established  with  that 
country  connections  and  relationships  which,  so  far 
from  ending  with  the  nominal  restoration  of  the  na 
tion  to  its  ancient  seats,  continued  throughout  their 
entire  subsequent  history,  even  after  the  final  destruc 
tion  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Romans.  In  Persia  they 
learned  Magianism.  To  that  form  of  Religion,  em 
braced,  undoubtedly,  the  more  readily  because  of  the 
shock  their  own  faith  had  sustained,  we  must  impute 
all  those  novelties  they  exhibit  after  their  return  from 
captivity.  Its  philosophical  aspect  might  even  rec 
ommend  it  to  the  more  intellectual  among  them.  In 
one  essential  point  it  offered  a  correspondence  to  the 
Hebrew  doctrine  forbidding  the  worship  of  God  un 
der  any  graven  image  or  form.  Asserting  the  exist 
ence  of  one  Great  First  Cause,  it  placed  beneath  him 
two  subordinate  powers,  metaphorically  set  forth  as 
Light,  and  Darkness.  It  explained  the  co-existence 
of  good  and  evil  in  the  world  on  the  principle  that 
wherever  there  is  brightness  there  must  be  shadow. 
It  presented  an  impersonation  of  these  powers  in  Or- 
musd,  the  Prince  of  Glory,  and  in  Ahriman,  or  Satan, 


MAGIANISM.  201 

the  embodiment  of  Evil  or  Darkness,  beneath  whom 
there  were  marshaled  respectively  armies  of  angels 
and  daemons.  Originally  Satan  was  created  pure,  but, 
becoming  envious  of  the  glory  of  Ormusd,  he  was  pre 
cipitated  into  the  abyss.  Between  these  dual  divini 
ties  an  unceasing  warfare  was  waged.  And  since  the 
First  Cause  was  far  removed  from  all  material  things, 
incapable  of  being  approached  even  by  man,  it  was 
needful  that  there  should  be  a  mediator.  Ormusd, 
the  principle  of  benevolence  and  light,  had  created 
man  in  a  state  of  purity  and  virtue ;  while  Ahriman, 
the  principle  of  evil  and  darkness,  continually  sought 
his  destruction.  In  the  last  day  of  this  conflict,  when 
Ahriman  is  conquered  and  cast  into  darkness,  the 
children  of  light  who  have  been  saved  will  enter  into 
eternal  glory.  Not  only  is  the  soul  of  man  immortal, 
but  there  is  for  the  good  a  resurrection  from  the  dead. 
The  punishment  of  Ahriman  is  not,  however,  to  be 
eternal :  he  will  be  purified  in  a  Purgatory  with  tor 
ments  of  fire.  The  Magians  admitted  angelic  influ 
ences  under  visible  forms,  and  accepted  the  idea  of 
Incarnation.  They  recognized  the  necessity  of  a  tan 
gible  form  of  worship  for  the  illiterate,  and  hence  set 
forth,  as  emblems  of  Ormusd,  Fire,  Light,  the  Sun,  to 
which  devotions  might  be  paid. 

Magianism  therefore  presented  a  complete  and  con 
sistent  religious  scheme  very  different  from  the  frag 
mentary  mythology  of  Europe,  which  offered  no  per- 


202  EFFECT  OF  MAGIANISM  ON  THE  HEBREWS. 

vading  idea.     So  far  as  its  doctrine  of  a  First  Cause 

o 

is  concerned,  it  approached,  as  has  been  said,  to  the 
Israelitish  conception.  It  dealt  with  the  great  moral 
problem  of  the  existence  of  evil  in  the  world.  It  had 
a  Principle  of  Good  and  of  Evil,  a  mechanism  of  An 
gels  and  Daemons.  It  contemplated  man  as  being  ex 
posed  in  this  life  continually  to  the  wiles  of  the  Devil. 
It  included  the  idea  of  a  Mediator  between  God  and 
man ;  it  asserted  the  immortality  of  the  human  soul, 
and  a  state  of  future  rewards  and  punishments.  Its 
ritual  has  descended  to  us  in  the  "  Zendavesta,"  or 
"  Oracles  of  Life,"  said  to  be  a  revelation  from  Ormusd. 
Before  the  Babylonian  captivity  the  Jews  seem  to 
have  entertained  corporeal  views  of  the  nature  of 
God,  and  not  to  have  accepted  the  doctrine  of  a  fu 
ture  life,  but  looked  for  rewards  and  punishments  ex 
clusively  in  this.  They  did  not  admit  a  resurrection 
from  the  Dead.  But,  after  that  event,  many  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  Magians  are  plainly  to  be  seen  in 
their  religious  belief;  and,  indeed,  upon  one  of  the 
more  prominent  of  them,  the  great  national  schism  be 
tween  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  arose.  The  lat 
ter,  assuming  the  air  of  an  elevated  philosophy,'  pre 
tending  to  lift  themselves  above  vulgar  ideas,  alto 
gether  rejected  the  articles  of  the  existence  of  angels, 
the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  of  the  future  state. 
It  has  been  the  fortune  of  Magianism,  on  two  occa 
sions,  to  affect  powerfully  the  Monotheism  of  the 


LATER  MAGIAN  EFFECTS.  203 

West;  once  in  thus  completely  modifying  the  He 
brew  faith  "by  imparting  to  it  many  new  ideas,  and 
again,  in  the  early  ages  of  Christianity,  by  amalga 
mating  itself  therewith,  and  giving  origin  to  the  varied 
forms  of  Gnosticism.  Not  only  were  Syria,  Asia  Mi 
nor  and  Egypt  filled  with  pseudo  -  Magian  sects,  but 
a  permanent  impression  was  imparted  to  the  subse 
quent  Catholic  form.  Of  this,  any  one  may  be  satis 
fied  who  compares  the  state  of  Christianity  in  the  first 
century  with  that  in  the  tenth,  aiding  himself  in  his 
examination  by  the  acknowledged  Magian  creed.  It 
is  an  interesting  circumstance  that  the  Catholic  au 
thorities  charge  the  earlier  Reformers  with  Magian 
tendencies  under  the  forms  of  Manichseism.  Thus 
the  Albigenses,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  twelfth  cen 
tury,  the  Waldenses,  the  Vaudois,  the  Picards,  the  Pe- 
trobrusians,  are  placed  under  that  stigma. 

The  co-existence  of  conflicting  ideas  in  the  same  re 
ligion  may  arise  not  only  from  conquest,  when  one 
caste  is  holding  another  in  subjugation,  but  also  in  a 
society  truly  homogeneous,  so  far  as  origin  is  concern 
ed,  but  which,  in  its  progress,  has  become  decomposed 
into  two  portions — a  thinking  class,  and  a  class  which 
is  absorbed  in  the  cares  of  supporting  animal  exist 
ence.  With  national  development  the  number  and 
influence  of  the  first  class  steadily  increases,  and  in 
the  end  it  exercises  a  regulating  political  power. 
Such  a  society,  therefore,  will  always  exhibit  a  tend- 


204:        PHILOSOPHICAL  PROGRESS  OF  THE  HEBREWS. 

ency  to  philosophical  progress  in  its  religious  views ; 
and  if  its  condition  is  examined  at  intervals  consider 
ably  apart,  the  advance  that  has  been  made  is  often 
very  striking.  Thus  there  can  not  be  any  doubt  that 
among  the  ancient  Israelites  it  was  the  current  belief 
that  Almighty  God  made  his  residence  behind  the 
veil  of  the  Temple.  In  later  times,  when  more  noble 
and  more  worthy  views  of  the  divine  nature  were  at 
tained  to,  the  same  people  could  not  possibly  accept 
a  doctrine  expressing  such  a  corporedization  of  God, 
and,  with  patriotic  inconsistency,  limited  that  occu 
pancy  to  the  time  of  the  Temple  of  Solomon.  Herein 
we  see  the  effect  of  opinions  originating  in  a  more  ad 
vanced  class  of  society,  and  gradually  ascended  to  by 
a  lower.  They  end  in  producing  compromises,  the  in 
consistency  of  which  is  excused  because  of  the  neces 
sities  of  the  case. 

Perhaps  I  may  here  be  excused  a  passing  remark 
on  those  venerable  books  constituting  the  Pentateuch, 
which  not  only  serve  as  a  guide  to  the  daily  life  of 
Israel  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  are  looked  upon 
by  Christendom  with  a  sentiment  of  profound  rever 
ence,  but  which  unhappily  have  been  diverted  from 
their  original  intent,  and  made  to  exert  a  most  extra 
ordinary,  and,  I  will  add,  repressing  influence  on  the 
advancement  of  scientific  discovery. 

I  think  that  whoever  will  read  this  portion  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  with  critical  care,  having  first  brought 


THE  PENTATEUCH.  205 

his  mind  to  a  clear  appreciation  of  the  manners  and 
opinions  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  and  also  of  those 
of  the  Assyrians,  will  be  forcibly  drawn  to  the  con 
clusion  that  the  author,  or  rather  authors  of  these 
books,  lived  nearer  to  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates 
than  to  those  of  the  Nile.  If  such  an  expression  may 
with  propriety  be  used,  their  literary  aspect  is  Assyr 
ian,  not  Egyptian. 

An  author,  even  though  inspired,  must  necessarily 
receive  a  tincture  from  the  scenery,  the  time,  the  com 
munity  in  which  he  lives.  The  images  and  expres 
sions  he  uses  will  all  accord  with  a  certain  style.  In 
literary  composition,  as  in  painting,  there  is  a  style 
which  makes  itself  obviously  manifest  to  the  critical 
eye.  Nay,  even  the  handwriting  of  a  man  is  readily 
detected  by  those  who  are  familiar  with  it,  though  it 
would  be  very  difficult  for  them  to  say  wherein  the 
peculiarity  consists.  I  repeat  it — the  style  of  this 
portion  of  the  Inspired  Volume  is  Asiatic,  not  African. 

For  the  sake  of  modern  science,  and  of  true  religion 
too,  it  is  deeply  to  be  regretted  that  this  interesting 
question  can  not  be  remitted  to  the  state  in  which  it 
was  a  century  ago,  when  it  was  regarded,  both  by 
Christian  and  Jewish  writers,  as  a  point  to  be  dealt 
with  according  to  the  rules  of  ordinary  criticism,  and 
not  as  a  matter  of  sentiment. 

With  diffidence  I  would  suggest  that  the  treatment 
of  this  question  will  probably  demand  a  renewed  and 


206  THE  PENTATEUCH. 

critical  examination  of  the  authenticity  of  the  four 
teenth  chapter  of  the  second  book  of  Esdras,  called 
apocryphal.  It  is  desirable  to  know  what  it  was 
that  determined  so  many  very  ancient  and  very  great 
ecclesiastical  writers  —  Irenseus,  Tertullian,  Clemens 
Alexandrinus,  Basil,  Jerome,  Augustine,  Chrysostom 
—to  accept  the  affirmations  of  that  chapter  as  true. 
They  lived  much  nearer  the  date  of  these  events  than 
we  do ;  perhaps  they  had  more  certain  means  to  guide 
their  judgment.  They  held  that  the  original  Penta 
teuch  was  lost  or  destroyed  in  the  Babylonian  cap 
tivity,  and  that  the  statement  that  Ezra  is  affirmed  to 
make  in  the  place  above  quoted  must  be  received  as 
accurate. 

That  statement  is  to  this  effect:  that  the  original 
books  were  burnt ;  and  that,  for  the  purpose  of  fur 
nishing  a  guide  to  the  people,  Ezra  undertook  to 
write  all  that  had  been  done  in  the  world  from  the 
beginning. 

To  this  end,  he  took  five  amanuenses,  and  secluded 
himself  for  forty  days.  In  that  time  the  books  wTere 
written;  and  the  Most  High  ordered  that  the  first 
portion  of  them  should  be  published  openly,  that  the 
worthy  and  the  unworthy  might  read  it. 

But  the  latter  portion  was  to  be  reserved  for  the 
wise,  for  in  them  is  the  vein  of  understanding,  and 
the  fountain  of  wisdom,  and  the  river  of  knowledge. 
And  Ezra  did  as  he  was  ordered  to  do.  There  were, 
then,  esoteric  and  exoteric  books. 


THE  MESSIANIC  IDEA.  207 

Ezra,  a  priest  and  Doctor  of  the  Law,  was  a  prison 
er  in  Media  in  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes  I.,  king  of 
Persia,  B.C.  458.  It  may  be  added,  to  connect  the 
recollection  of  these  events  with  European  chronolo 
gy,  that  they  happened  about  the  time  that  Themis- 
tocles  put  himself  to  death. 

To  return  from  this  digression :  Persia  imposed  on 
the  Jews  an  intellectual  impression  discoverable  in  all 
their  subsequent  history.  It  gave  a  special  character 
istic  to  their  religious  faith.  Above  all,  on  their  re- 

o 

turn  to  their  native  country  they  brought  with  them 
the  idea  that  has  imparted  to  them,  in  subsequent 
ages,  indestructibility.  In  their  captivity  they  had 
been  witnesses  of  many  great  political  events.  They 
had  seen  their  Babylonian  desolator  made  desolate, 
their  victor  vanquished.  It  was  in  the  uncertainties 
and  sufferings  of  these  events,  when  they  hung  their 
harps  on  the  willows  and  wept  when  they  remember 
ed  Zion,  that  the  hope  of  a  Deliverer  first  arose ;  and 
in  the  greater  calamities  of  after  ages,  this,  which  in 
the  first  instance  was  no  more  than  a  wished-for  po 
litical  event,  became  a  fixed  religious  expectation. 
Experience  had  shown  them  that  in  the  fall  and  rise 
of  great  empires  they  had  been  preserved.  It  taught 
them  to  look  with  an  inflexible  faith  through  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  the  future. 

After  the  overthrow  of  the  Persian  Empire  by 
Alexander  the  Great,  the  Jewrs  were  brought  in  con- 


208  HEBREW  DEVELOPMENT. 

tact  with  a  new  intellectual  disturbance — Greek  phi 
losophy.  The  Syrian  Jews  successfully  resisted  that 
influence ;  the  trifling  approaches  made  to  it  were  of 
a  very  transitory  kind.  Such  outward  manifestations 
as  the  race-course  and  gymnasia,  that  had  been  estab 
lished,  did  not  suit  the  genius  of  Jerusalem.  But  it 
was  far  otherwise  with  those  Israelitish  emigrants 
wdio  had  settled  in  Egypt.  Under  the  favoring  cli 
mate  of  that  country  they  became  thoroughly  Hellen- 
ized.  Among  them  the  philosophy  of  Plato  found 
enthusiastic  devotees,  and  through  them  the  whole 
current  of  later  European  religious  thought  has  been 
affected. 

As  they  had  withstood  Greek,  so,  too,  they  with 
stood  Roman  influence.  In  vain  Antiochus  Epiph- 
anes,  who  had  long  lived  in  Rome,  tried  to  bring 
about  a  change ;  in  vain  succeeding  princes  renewed 
the  attempt ;  the  stubborn,  stiff-necked  people  were 
as  unyielding  as  adamant.  The  Pharisees,  who  con 
stituted  the  patriotic  party — Hebrews  of  the  Hebrews 
—would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  fictions  or  phi 
losophies  of  the  West.  They  left  that,  with  derision 
and  detestation,  to  the  infidel  Sadducees. 

Still  again ;  when  the  Arabians  overwhelmed  by 
their  military  conquests  Asia  and  Africa,  though  the 
Jew  in  one  sense  affiliated  with  the  victorious  intru 
der,  in  another,  with  an  inborn  instinct,  he  kept  him 
self  separate.  The  Syrian  branch  of  the  family,  with 


HEBREW  DEVELOPMENT.  209 

its  immovable  austerities,  had  yielded  in  importance 
to  the  Egyptian :  it  had  been  more  than  decimated  by 
the  bitterness  of  Roman  subjugation,  both  Pagan  and 
Christian ;  but  the  Egyptian  Israelite,  though  declin 
ing  the  forms  of  Mecca,  gave  his  hand  to  the  Saracen. 
They  found  a  point  of  harmony  in  the  great  doctrine 
of  the  oneness  of  God.  From  this  alliance  both  par 
ties  took  benefit:  the  Arab  gained  philosophy,  and 
the  Jew  political  influence.  Conjointly  they  forced 
upon  Europe  its  chief  modern  characteristic — scien 
tific  advancement. 

Not  until  the  Syrian  Jew  had  become  modified  by 
migrating  to  other  countries  did  his  character  change. 
So  long  as  he  was  in  the  chosen  land,  he  was  ever  the 
same  unyielding  fanatic.  He  had  no  conception  of 
art,  either  as  expressed  by  painting  or  statuary.  In 
possession  of  what  he  considered  to  be  a  supernatural 
revelation,  it  was  impossible  that  literature  should 
prosper  with  him,  or  even  receive  the  smallest  encour 
agement.  His  profound  belief  in  signs  and  wonders 
was  incompatible  with  science,  and  accordingly  noth 
ing  deserving  of  that  name  existed  in  his  nation. 

But  his  mind  as  well  as  his  sky  changed  when  he 
migrated  to  other  countries.  He  became  great  among 
the  greatest  in  all  these  manifestations  of  the  highest 
results  of  human  civilization. 

Scattered  all  over  the  world,  Israel  still,  as  a  peo 
ple,  exists.  Go  where  we  will,  we  may  always  find 

O 


210  HEBREW  DEVELOPMENT. 

its  patriarchal  graybeard,  when  all  other  earthly  ob 
jects  and  pursuits  are  passing  away,  sitting  in  hourly 
expectation  of  an  annunciation  of  the  Messiah.  It  is 
that,  and  no  miracle,  which,  through  the  wreck  of  na 
tions  and  the  extinction  of  men,  has  given  to  the  Jew 
immortality.  He  lives  through  the  force  of  an  idea. 

I  can  not  close  these  remarks  better  than  by  quot 
ing  a  passage  of  profound  import  from  the  learned 
author  of  the  "  Etudes  d'Histoire  Religieuse :" 

"  If,  finally,  we  put  to  ourselves  this  question,  Has 
Israel  fulfilled  its  calling?  has  it,  in  the  grand  min 
gling  of  nations,  kept  the  post  that  was  originally  in 
trusted  to  it  ?  we  reply  without  hesitation,  Yes.  Is 
rael  has  been  the  stem  on  which  the  faith  of  the  hu 
man  race  has  been  grafted.  No  people  has  taken  its 
destiny  so  seriously  as  Israel ;  none  has  felt  so  vivid 
ly  its  joys  and  its  sorrows  as  a  nation ;  none  has  lived 
more  thoroughly  for  an  idea.  Israel  has  vanquished 
Time,  and  made  use  of  all  its  oppressors.  The  day 
when  a  false  report  caused  us  to  celebrate  one  year 
too  soon  the  taking  of  Sebastopol,  an  old  Polish  Jew, 
who  spends  his  days  in  the  Imperial  Library,  absorb 
ed  in  reading  the  dusty  manuscripts  of  his  nation, 
greeted  me  with  this  quotation  from  Isaiah:  'Is  it 
fallen,  is  it  fallen,  Babylon  V  The  victory  of  the  Al 
lies,  as  he  saw  it,  was  but  the  chastisement  for  vio 
lence  practiced  on  his  co-religionists  by  the  man  whom 
he  called  the  Nebuchadnezzar  and  the  Antiochus  of 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE.  211 

our  time.  In  that  sad  old  man  I  seemed  to  see  before 
me  the  living  genius  of  that  indestructible  people. 
Over  every  ruin  it  has  clapped  its  hands ;  persecuted 
by  all  men,  on  all  men  it  has  been  avenged.  For  this 
it  has  needed  but  one  quality — a  quality  which,  how 
ever,  man  gives  not  to  himself — endurance.  It  is  by 
this  that  it  has  brought  to  pass  the  boldest  predic 
tions  of  its  prophets.  The  world  that  despised  it  has 
come  round  to  it.  Jerusalem  at  this  present  hour  is 
truly  '  a  house  of  prayer  for  all  nations,'  equally  ven 
erated  by  Jew,  by  Christian,  by  Mussulman." 

These  instances  of  the  political  force  of  Ideas  in  the 
case  of  the  Arabians  and  the  Israelites  may  serve  as 
an  introduction  to  the  consideration  of  that  grander 
idea  under  which  modern  civilization  is  evolving ;  it 
is,  that  man  can  comprehend  Nature,  and  subjugate 
physical  agents  to  his  use. 

A  most  audacious  conception — the  conquest  of  Na 
ture  !  Like  other  grand  ideas,  it  has  slowly  emerged 
from  small  beginnings  and  is  steadily  forcing  its  way. 
Resisted  by  influences  that  have  gathered  around 
them  in  the  course  of  centuries  political  power,  it  has 
overthrown  many  and  confronts  the  rest.  Modern 
Europe  is  fast  submitting  herself  to  its  rule. 

It  first  formally  appeared  in  the  writings  of  Aris 
totle,  and  gained  strength  through  the  events  conse 
quent  on  the  Asiatic  campaign  of  Alexander  the 


212  THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE,   .t 

Great.  Under  the  auspices  of  the  Ptolemies,  who 
founded  in  Alexandria  institutions  for  its  encourage 
ment,  it  received  a  marked  development,  and  would 
probably  have  modified  the  aspect  of  human  affairs, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  founding  of  the  Byzantine 
Empire. 

For  it  so  fell  out  that  the  political  position  of  Con- 
stantine  the  Great  and  his  successors  was  incompati 
ble  with  the  protection  of  science,  the  knowledge  of 
Nature.  Those  sovereigns  placed  themselves  in  in 
flexible  opposition  to  it ;  and  to  the  last,  when  they 
were  overthrown  by  the  Turks,  used  whatever  power 
they  had  for  its  destruction.  The  policy  they  thus 
adopted  became  incorporated  with  the  ecclesiastical 
system  -they  represented,  and,  though  with  diminish 
ed  force,  it  has  descended  to  our  times. 

But  it  was  not  in  Constantinople  alone  that  events 
took  this  unhappy  course.  ,  Papal  Rome,  through  her 
ancient  connection  with  the  Byzantine  policy,  became 
in  like  manner  committed ;  and  her  ecclesiastical  in 
fluence,  reaching  even  through  the  Reformation,  still 
acts  adversely  on  the  investigation  of  Nature  and 
against  the  free  propagation  of  thought. 

So  far  as  Europe  has  found  relief  from  this  intel 
lectual  oppression,  her  deliverance  has  come  through 
those  people  to  whose  history  I  have  been  referring 
— the  Arabians  and  the  Jews.  Modern  Science  as 
well  as  modern  Industry  is  their  creation. 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  NATURE.  213 

I  now  propose  to  devote  a  few  pages  to  a  partial 
illustration  of  what  has  been  done  toward  obtaining 
a  true  knowledge  of  Nature,  and  the  subjugation  of 
physical  agents  to  the  use  of  man.  But,  though  I 
were  to  increase  by  many  times  the  space  I  can  de 
vote  to  this  topic,  I  must  necessarily  leave  it  in  a 
very  imperfect,  and  therefore  unsatisfactory  condition. 
So  vast  is  the  body  of  information  accumulated,  that 
it  exceeds  the  capacity  of  any  one  book,  and  trans 
cends  the  understanding  of  any  one  man. 

But,  though  imperfect  in  that  respect,  this  sketch 
will  be  sufficient  to  give  emphasis  to  the  proposition 
I  intend  to  rest  upon  it — that  a  Nation  which  is  pre 
paring  itself  for  sovereignty  among  the  powers  of  the 
earth  must  shake  off  the  traditions  of  obsolete  policy, 
and  stand  forth  the  defender  and  protector  of  free 
thought. 

The  process  of  attaining  correct  views  of  Nature 
has  been  marked  by  a  continual  decline  of  the  myste 
rious  and  supernatural. 

In  the  beginning  of  social  as  well  as  of  individual 
life,  the  appearance  of  things  is  accepted  as  a  reality. 
The  blue  concave  of  the  sky  seems  to  be  a  roof  to  the 
earth,  separating  it  from  higher  and  serener  regions 
beyond.  In  old  times  they  thought  that  it  might  be 
frozen  air  in  which  stars  had  been  imbedded,  and  be 
neath  which  the  sun  and  ihoQii,  made  for  the  purpose 


214  THE  ATMOSPHERE. 

of  giving  light  to  man,  performed  their  daily  rising 
and  setting.  This  crystalline  firmament  parted  the 
world  of  waters  above  from  the  earthly  world  of  wa 
ters  below.  It  was  also  the  floor  of  heaven.  The 
poets  exhausted  their  imagination  in  depicting  the 
splendors  of  this  empyrean  abode,  the  habitation  of 
celestial  beings  and  of  the  immortal  gods. 

Not,  then,  without  surprise  does  man  assure  him 
self  that  he  can  not  trust  his  eyes ;  that  the  sky  is 
only  an  illusion ;  and  that  for  distances  infinite  in  his 
appreciation  there  is  nothing  but  space  and  stars. 

The  atmosphere  is  then  a  shell  of  gas,  or  rather  a 
mixture  of  gases,  enveloping  the  earth.  It  does  not 
extend  indefinitely,  but  its  limit  is  reached  at  a  height 
of  less  than  fifty  miles.  Though  in  one  sense  invisi 
ble,  and  supposed  in  the  old  times  to  be  altogether 
of  a  spiritual  nature,  it  is  now  known  to  have  weight 
like  other  material  things,  and  therefore  to  exert 
pressure.  On  every  square  inch  of  the  surface  upon 
which  it  rests  it  bears  with  a  pressure  of  about  fifteen 
pounds. 

Fifty  miles  it  extends  upward,  becoming  thinner 
and  thinner,  and  at  that  distance  it  ends.  But  to  the 
earth's  centre  there  are  nearly  four  thousand  miles. 
So,  if  we  compare  the  earth  with  the  atmosphere,  they 
bear  about  the  same  proportion  to  each  other  that  a 
peach  does  to  the  down  that  covers  it.  The  color  of 
the  sky  is  the  blue  tin;t  flf  oxygen  gas,  one  of  the 
chief  ingredients  of  the  air. 


NATURE  OF  GASES.  215 

Besides  oxygen  there  are  a  great  many  other  aerial 
substances  in  the  atmosphere,  for  it  must  necessarily 
be  the  receptacle  of  every  vaporous  substance  formed 
on  the  earth.  To  such  substances  the  designation  of 
gases  has  been  given,  because  until  recent  times  they 
were  considered  to  be  of  a  spiritual  character:  the  ' 
word  gas  is  a  corruption  of  geist  or  ghost.  It  was 
generally  thought  that  these  principles  could  take  on 
a  bodily  form :  that  they  secreted  themselves,  like 
genii  or  apparitions,  in  pits  and  caves,  suffocating  la 
borers  who  intruded  on  their  privacy :  in  mines  they 
guarded  treasures.  There  was  abundant  evidence 
that  they  had  often  been  seen  in  such  solitary  places 
as  dwarfs  of  grotesque  appearance,  with  leathery  ears 
hanging  down  to  their  shoulders,  and  clad  in  gar 
ments  of  gray  cloth. 

But  we  can  not  altogether  rely  on  human  testimo 
ny,  no  matter  how  copious  or  respectable  it  may  be. 
Men  now  generate  gases  in  glass  retorts,  collect  them 
in  bell  jars,  fasten  them  up  in  bottles,  analyze  them, 
combine  them  with  one  another.  They  have  no  spir 
itual  qualities ;  they  are  only  matter. 

Composed  of  such  ingredients,  the  air  presses  on 
the  body  of  every  man  with  a  weight  of  thirty  thou 
sand  pounds ;  yet,  wonderful  to  be  said,  we  do  not 
feel  it.  Its  particles  adhere  so  lightly  to  each  other 
that  motions  are  very  easily  established  in  it,  and 
hence  arise  breezes  and  tempests.  The  swiftness  and 


216  METEOROLOGY. 

destructiveness  of  the  latter  may  impress  us  with  an 
idea  that  they  are  of  a  supernatural  origin;  but  the 
poetic  angel,  who 

"  Rides  in  the  whirlwind  and  directs  the  storm," 

is,  in  truth,  the  warmth  of  the  sun.  This  warmth,  ex 
panding  the  lower  strata  of  the  atmosphere,  establish 
es  upward  currents,  which,  influenced  by  the'  rotation 
of  the  earth  on  her  axis,  produce  the  trade  winds  that 
blow  eternally  in  th^  tropical  seas,  or,  by  neutralizing 
one'  another,  give  rise  to  the  tropical  calms.  On  sim 
ilar  physical  principles  are  explained  land  and  sea 
breezes:  they  are  due  to  the  alternate  warming  and 
cooling  of  the  land.  The  monsoons  of  the  Indian 
Ocean  are  traced  to  the  heating  of  the  continents  of 
Africa  and  Asia  alternately.  Tornadoes  are  discs  of 
air  whirling  round  a  vertical  or  somewhat  inclined 
axis,  which  is  carried  forward  with  the  storm.  In 
days  of  old  the  mariner  offered  sacrifices  to  ^Eolus 
and  Neptune,  the  gods  of  the  winds  and  the  sea,  to 
preserve  his  ship  from  foundering;  but  now  he  ob 
serves  his  barometer,  and,  relying  on  the  published 
theory  of  hurricanes,  finds  safety  for  himself  by  sail 
ing  out  of  their  way. 

Meteorology,  less  advanced  than  many  other  of  the 
sciences,  has  not  yet  freed  itself  completely  from  the 
supernatural.  The  rainy  and  the  dry  seasons,  the 
trade  winds  and  calms  of  the  tropics,  have  been  sue- 


NATURE  OF  SOUNDS.  217 

cessfully  referred  to  physical  causes  and  clearly  ex 
plained.  In  temperate  climates  there  is  so  much  ap 
parent  irregularity,  that  vicissitudes  of  the  weather 
seem  hardly  to  take  place  in  the  necessities  of  the 
case  and  in  an  inevitable  way.  But  in  what  parallel 
of  latitude  is  it  that  physical  agencies  end  and  super 
natural  ones  begin  ?  Men  have  not  yet  clearly  learn 
ed  that  the  course  of  Nature  will  never  be  changed  at 
their  entreaty ;  they  do  not  yet  understand  that  their 
business  is,  by  exercising  the  reason  that  has  been 
given  them,  to  attain  foreknowledge  of  coming  events, 
and  arrange  their  affairs  accordingly. 

Besides  the  obvious  and  sometimes  violent  move 
ments  in  the  air,  there  are  others  of  an  invisible  kind. 
They  are  connected  with  sounds.  The  ancients  feign 
ed  that  Echo,  a  nymph  who  was  the  daughter  of  Aer 
and  Tellus,  indulging  in  an  unrequited  love,  pined 
away  until  nothing  was  left  but  her  voice,  which  still 
may  be  heard  in  rocky  solitudes  and  unfrequented 
places,  once  her  familiar  haunts. 

But  sounds  are  only  motion.  Two  things  are  need 
ful  for  their  perception — vibrating  particles  to  origin 
ate,  and  an  elastic  medium  to  convey  them.  Perhaps 
it  may  seem  wonderful  that  the  air,  which  is  common 
ly  that  medium,  though  permitting  the  onward  rush 
of  a  sound  at  a  rate  of  1089  feet  in  a  second,  is  itself 
so  nearly  motionless  that  not  even  the  motes  floating 
in  the  sunbeam  are  disturbed  by  it,  nor  the  ascending 


218  NATURE  OF  SOUNDS. 

smoke  of  a  chimney  that  the  feeblest  breeze  could 
dissipate.  That  wonder  may,  however,  cease,  when 
we  recall  what  we  have  seen  when  a  long  cord  tied 
at  one  end  is  shaken  up  and  down  at  the  other; 
waves  run  along  it,  though  the  cord  keeps  its  place : 
or  when,  in  the  harvest  season,  the  wind  presses  on 
the  ripe  ears,  imparting  to  them  a  bowing  motion,  un 
dulations  pass  swiftly  across  the  field :  it  is  only  a 
phantom-form  that  is  moving.  And  so  with  the  air ; 
a  wave-like  form  rushes  through  it,  though  it  is  in  re 
ality  motionless  in  its  mass. 

According  as  the  vibrating  body  varies  its  quick 
ness  of  movement,  the  note  emitted  by  it  changes. 
The  number  of  times  it  must  beat  back  and  forth  to 
produce  a  given  note  has  been  ascertained  by  many 
curious  experiments.  It  may  be  as  low  as  32  or  as 
high  as  24,000  in  a  second.  Two  sounds  encounter 
ing  one  another  may  give  rise,  as  one  would  antici 
pate,  to  an  increased  effect ;  but  they  may  also  total 
ly  neutralize  one  another,  producing  absolute  silence, 
and  that,  no  matter  how  loud  they  may  have  been : 
they  are  said  to  interfere.  The  mechanism  of  that 
interference  is  understood. 

To  produce  the  sounds  that  are  necessary  for  inter 
communication  among  the  higher  animals,  and  partic 
ularly  the  speech  of  man,  it  might  be  supposed  that 
some  complicated  and  elaborate  contrivance  must 
needs  be  resorted  to.  This  object  is,  however,  accom- 


THE  SEA.  219 

plislied  by  merely  employing,  on  its  escape  from  the 
system,  the  wasted  product  of  respiration,  the  breath, 
which,  as  it  issues  outward  through  the  respiratory 
passages,  sets  in  motion  a  simple  mechanism,  and 
thereby  originates  all  the  exquisite  modulations  of 
song  and  all  the  impressive  utterances  of  speech.  Is 
it  not  admirable,  that  thus  out  of  dead  and  apparent 
ly  useless  matter  results  of  so  high  an  order,  material 
ly  and  mentally,  are  obtained  ? 

Are  not  all  the  inventions  of  musical  notation  and 
alphabetical  writing  admirable?  They  enable  man 
to  reproduce  sounds  and  their  predetermined  succes 
sion,  thereby  rekindling  sentimental  feeling,  and  con 
veying  knowledge  from  one  generation  to  another. 


From  the  atmosphere  and  its  phenomena  we  may 
turn  to  the  sea.  It  covers  nearly  three  fourths  of  the 
earth's  surface,  and  seems  to  be  a  fitting  emblem  of 
omnipotence  and  infinity.  Dealing  with  it  as  we  have 
dealt  with  the  air,  and  referring  it  to  the  dimensions 
of  the  earth,  we  find  that  it  is  nothing  more  than  a 
mere  film  resting  in  shallow  cavities  on  the  surface 
of  the  earth.  The  varnish  that  covers  a  globe  repre 
sents  its  relative  size  not  inadequately. 

The  color  of  the  sea  varies  very  much  at  different 
times  and  in  different  localities.  It  exhibits  shades 
of  red,  green,  and  blue,  its  particular  tint  depending 
on  the  aspect  of  the  sky  or  clouds — sometimes  on  the 


220  THE  SEA. 

color  of  its  bed,  sometimes  on  the  .condition  of  the  wa 
ter  itself,  as  affected  by  turbidity  or  by  the  presence 
of  an  infinite  number  of  small  aquatic  animals,  certain 
species  of  which  often  make  it  phosphorescent  by 
night.  Its  temperature  is  different  in  different  lati 
tudes,  though  a  complete  correspondence  in  this  re 
spect  is  not  to  be  anticipated,  on  account  of  the  facility 
with  which  currents  are  established  in  it,  analogous 
to  winds  in  the  atmosphere.  'Making  due  allowance 
for  this,  it  may  be  said  that  its  surface  temperature 
varies  from  about  85°  in  the  torrid  zone  to  the  freez 
ing  point  in  the  Polar  Sea.  From  the  circumstance 
of  its  containing  so  much  saline  matter,  its  specific 
gravity  is  greater  than  that  of  pure  water :  at  the 
equator  it  is  1.028.  This  density  necessarily  varies 
with  the  rate  at  which  superficial  evaporation  under 
the  influence  of  the  sun  is  taking  place.  As  the  at 
mosphere  is  a  general  receptacle  for  gases  and  vapors 
disengaged  from  the  earth,  so  the  sea  is  a  general  re 
ceptacle  for  soluble  matter  discharged  into  it  by  riv 
ers.  Among  such  substances  common  salt  greatly 
predominates :  it  constitutes  more  than  three  fourths 

of  the  entire  solid  amount. 

.•i  !•• 

In  the  same  manner  in  which  it  establishes  -cur 
rents  in  the  air  by  occasioning  expansion,  solar  heat 
likewise  gives  rise  to  currents  in  the  sea.  In  this  in 
stance,  however,  the  action  is  not  of  so  purely  physi 
cal  a  kind  as  in  the  other,  for  a  chemical  change  taking 


OCEANIC  CURRENTS.  221 

place  indirectly  modifies  the  result.  This  chemical 
change  is  an  evaporation  of  pure  water,  which  leaves 
the  sea  a  more  concentrated  salt  solution  than  before. 
Its  effect  is  therefore  in  some  degree  to  counteract  the 
expansion  of  the  water  by  warmth ;  for  the  sun  -  rays 
being  able  to  penetrate  several  feet  below  the  sur 
face,  correspondingly  raise  the  temperature  of  that 
portion,  which  expands  and  becomes  lighter;  but, 
simultaneously,  surface  evaporation  tends  to  make 
the  water  heavier.  Notwithstanding  this,  in  a  gen 
eral  way  currents  are  established,  answering  to  winds 
in  the  air.  Of  these  the  Gulf  Stream  is  the  most  in 
teresting  example. 

The  mechanical  action  of  the  sun-rays  in  occasion 
ing  currents  is  thus  effected  through  the  expansion 
of  the  water,  of  which  the  warm  portions  ascend  to 
the  surface,  colder  portions  from  beneath  setting  in 
to  supply  their  place.  These  currents,  both  hot  and 
cold,  are  of  course  affected  by  the  diurnal  rotation  of 
the  earth,  the  action  being,  in  principle,  the  same  as 
that  occurring  in  the  winds.  They  exert  so  great  an 
influence  as  conveyers  of  heat,  as  to  disturb  the  ordi 
nary  climate  relations  depending  on  the  sun's  position. 

But  not  only  as  a  liquid  does  water  exist;  it  can 
assume  other  forms,  becoming  solid  in  ice  and  aerial 
in  steam.  In  what  does  the  difference  of  these  states 
consist  ?  Ordinary  experience  must  at  all  times  have 
indicated  that  these  changes  depend  on  temperature ; 


222  THE  STEAM-ENGINE. 

but  it  was  not  until  the  last  century  that  the  true  re 
lation  was  distinctly  made  out.  The  intrinsic  differ 
ence  between  water  and  ice  is  this,  that  water  con 
tains  about  140  degrees  of  heat  more  than  ice,  and 
that  this  heat  is  imperceptible  to  the  thermometer. 
When,  therefore,  ice  turns  into  water,  the  140  degrees 
of  heat  must  be  imparted,  and  when  water  turns  into 
ice  they  must  be  taken  away.  Moreover,  the  intrin 
sic  difference  between  water  and  its  vapor,  or  steam, 
is  this;  that  though  they  may  be  at  the  same  tem 
perature,  steam  contains  about  1000  degrees  of  heat 
more  than  water,  which  large  amount — enough,  in 
deed,  to  make  a  solid  body  red  hot — is  altogether  im 
perceptible  by  the  thermometer.  When  water  turns 
into  steam  these  thousand  degrees  of  heat  must  be 
furnished,  and  when  steam  is  condensed  into  water 
they  must  be  taken  away.  This  discovery  was  not 
only  of  importance  scientifically,  it  was  also  connect 
ed  with  the  great  invention  of  the  last  century — the 
steam-engine,  which  has  revolutionized  the  industry 
of  the  world. 

What  has  not  that  invention  done  for  America? 
At  this  moment  it  more  than  doubles  our  laboring 
population,  it  makes  available  our  vast  river  system, 
and  in  the  railway  binds  the  most  distant  parts  of 
the  Nation  together.  What  would  this  continent 
have  been  if  we  had  possessed  no  cheaper  and  better 
sources  of  power  than  that  of  animals,  or  of  falling 


COMPOSITION  OF  WATER.  223 

water,  or  of  the  wind  ?  The  application  of  an  appa 
rently  abstruse  fact  connected  with  latent  heat,  and 
the  relations  of  vapors  and  liquids  to  one  another,  has 
been  essentially  necessary  to  the  development  of  our 
Western  civilization. 

The  invention  of  the  steam-engine  was  followed 
by  the  discovery  of  the  compound  nature  of  water. 
From  the  most  primitive  times  that  liquid  had  been 
considered  to  be  a  simple  undecomposable  body.  It 
was  one  of  the  four  elements  of  antiquity.  But  soon 
after  the  discovery  of  two  very  important  gases,  Oxy 
gen  and  Hydrogen,  a  suspicion  that  it  is  composed  of 
them  began  to  be  entertained.  The  invention  of  the 
Voltaic  battery  finally  and  decisively  settled  that 
point,  the  compound  nature  of  water  being  placed  be 
yond  contradiction.  There  can  be  no  exaggeration 
of  the  importance  of  this  discovery.  It  may  be  af 
firmed  to  have  been  the  starting-point  of  the  wonder 
ful  development  of  modern  chemistry. 

The  sun's  heat  causes  evaporation  to  take  place 
from  the  entire  surface  of  the  sea,  but  to  a  different 
degree  in  different  latitudes.  In  the  torrid  zone, 
where  the  heat  is  greatest,  the  quantity  thus  raised 
is  a  maximum,  and  from  that  legion  the  amount  de 
clines  north  and  south  toward  the  poles.  It  is  to  be 
understood  that  the  water  thus  vaporized  is  pure,  and 
contains  no  saline  matter.  In  consequence  of  this 
different  degree  of  vaporization,  it  necessarily  follows 


224  EVAPORATION. 

that  the  percentage  of  salt  is  greatest  at  the  equator, 
and  there  the  specific  gravity  would  be  very  much 
higher  were  it  not  for  the  more  elevated  temperature. 
As  to  the  nature  of  evaporation,  the  earlier  chemists 
imagined  that  t  it  was  altogether  due  to  atmospheric 
agency,  the  air  dissolving  more  moisture  as  its  tem 
perature  is  higher. 

In  the  Patristic  philosophy  it  was  supposed  that 
the  quantity  of  water  in  the  sea  was  once  far  greater 
than  at  present,  sufficient,  indeed,  to  overflow  the 

mountains,  but  that  it  had  been  removed  and  the 

% 

land  dried  by  the  agency  of  a  wind.  The  quantity 
of  material  substance  on  the  globe  has  never  dimin 
ished;  it  is  the  same  now  as  it  was  in  the  begin 
ning.  Such  a  diminution  could  not  take  place  with 
out  causing  an  alteration  in  the  length  of  the  year. 
Evaporation  is  due  not  to  the  agency  of  the  air,  but 
to  heat,  heat  alone  determining  the  quantity  of  vapor 
that  can  exist  in  a  given  space,  that  quantity  being 
the  same  whether  the  space  is  a  void  or  already  oc 
cupied  by  other  gases.  If  the  temperature  rises,  the 
amount  of  vapor  that  can  exist  in  such  a  space  in- 
' creases;  if  the  temperature  declines,  it  diminishes. 
All  this  is  dependent  .on  the  fact  that  the  elastic  force 
of  a  vapor  increases  with  its  temperature,  and  that  for 
every  temperature  there  is  a  density  for  the  vapor 
which  can  not  be  exceeded  without  liquefaction  en 
suing.  This  point  is  known  as  that  of  maximum 


CLOUDS.  225 

density.  It  was  by  a  thorough  comprehension  of  the 
principles  herein  involved  that  Watt  was  led  to  in 
vent  the  low-pressure  steam-engine,  in  which  he  ac 
complished  the  apparently  paradoxical  result  of  con 
densing  the  steam  without  cooling  the  cylinder. 

Thus  there  is  raised  from  the  sea  and  from  the 
damp  surface  of  the  land  a  quantity  of  fresh  water, 
every  day,  answering  to  the  supply  of  solar  heat.  It 
rises  in  the  warm  current,  ascending  in  a  perfectly  in 
visible  state,  retaining  that  condition  until  it  conies  to 
regions  the  temperature  of  which  is  low  enough  to 
surpass  the  point  of  maximum  density  and  occasion 
condensation.  As  this  takes  place  in  the  upper  stra 
ta,  the  liquid  water,  as  it  forms,  is  in  globules  of  per 
haps  EO^OO  °f  an  incn  m  size-  Their  misty  aggregate  is 
a  cloud. 

Clouds,  while  thus  floating  in  the  air,  if  their  di 
mensions  are  not  too  great,  so  as  to  overshadow  the 
canopy,  become  beautiful  objects  as  reflectors  of  the 
sun's  light,  and  thus  borrowing  tints  and  brilliancy 
from  his  rays.  They  may  either  dissolve  away  by 
coming  into  warmer  or  dryer  'spaces,  or  *their  minute 
spherules,  coalescing  together,  may  descend  to  the 
ground  as  rain.  Water  descending  as  rain  is  per 
haps  the  purest  offered  to  us  by  nature,  yet  it  is  far 
from  being  chemically  pure.  The  rain-drops  dissolve 
out  of  the  air  portions  of  its  various  gaseous  ingredi 
ents,  and  become  especially  contaminated  by  dust  and 

P 


226  RAIN  AND  EFFECTS  OF  WATER. 

organic  matter  disseminated  through  it.  Pure  water 
can  only  be  obtained  by  careful  distillation  in  vessels 
made  of  platinum,  silver,  or  gold. 

Rain,  falling  on  the  earth,  sinks  through  the  pores 
and  crevices  to  issue  forth  again  in  certain  localities 
as  springs.  Before  the  water  thus  emerges  it  has  be 
come  still  farther  contaminated  by  dissolving  what 
ever  soluble  materials  chance  to  be  in  its  way.  Each 
spring  discharging  its  waters  through  a  little  branch, 
these  successively  coalesce  with  one  another,  forming 
streams  larger  and  larger  until  they  become  a  river. 
In  that  manner  a  section  of  country  is  drained  through 
its  lowlands  and  valleys,  the  river  making  its  way 
down  its  incline,  and  eventually  delivering  its  waters 
into  the  sea.  Thus,  by  the  heat  of  the  sun  and  grav 
itation  conjointly,  the  water  passes  through  a  com 
plete  cycle.  From  the  sea  it  arose,  to  the  sea  it  inev 
itably  returns. 

But,  though  water  thus  derived  from  the  sea  re 
turns  thereto  ultimately  with  inevitable  certainty,  a 
portion  is  intercepted  and  delayed  in  its  course,  to 
discharge  very  important  offices  in  the  mechanical  and 
organic  phenomena  of  the  earth. 

As  respects  its  mechanical  functions,  space  would 
fail  me  if  I  were  to  consider  them  in  detail,  or  to  at 
tempt  to  show  how  greatly,  in  its  liquid  state,  water 
is  the  agent  that  modifies  the  surface  of  the  globe. 
There  falls  not  a  drop  of  rain  which  does  not  disinte- 


AURORA  AND  LIGHTNING.  227 

grate  and  disturb  portions  of  the  soil ;  there  flows  not 
a  stream  which  does  not  carry  solid  matter  into  the 
sea.  It  is  for  geology  to  contemplate  the  amazing  ag 
gregate  of  detritus  thus  removed  from  continents,  di 
minishing  their  height  and  filling  up  the  bed  of  the 
sea;  to  consider  the  effects  in  colder  climates  arising 
from  the  freezing  of  water  and  the  properties  of  ice 
in  the  act  of  solidification — the  expansion  tending  to 
pulverize  the  soil  effectually,  as  agriculturists  well 
know.  In  such  masses  as  glaciers  and  icebergs  the 
mechanical  effects  are  of  no  little  scientific  interest. 
The  vaporous  condition  and  changes  from  it  are  sub 
jects  which  engross  a  large  portion '  of  meteorology ; 
for  such  events  as  the  condensation  of  atmospheric' 
moisture  into  rain,  snow,  hail,  can  not  occur  without 
enormous  disturbances  in  the  pressure  and  other  re 
lations  of  the  air,  giving  rise  to  many  imposing  me 
teorological  events. 

But  of  all  meteorological  phenomena,  undoubtedly 
the  most  surprising  are  the  displays  of  atmospheric 
electricity.  What  can  be  more  beautiful  than  the 
fantastic,  the  ever-changing  movements  of  the  Auro 
ra  ?  what  more  imposing  than  the  flash  of  lightning  ? 
Not  without  reason  have  men  in  all  ages  looked  upon 
the  former  as  glimpses  of  the  movements  of  angels, 
and  upon  the  latter  as  being  the  weapon  of  God. 

Scientific  discovery  has  not  only  removed  these 
prodigies  from  the  domain  of  the  supernatural,  it  has 


228  ELECTRICAL  DISCOVERIES. 

also  made  the  agent  concerned  in  their  production 
available  for  the  purposes  of  man.  When  Franklin, 
with  a  boy's  kite,  drew  down  the  lightning  from 
heaven,  there  was  a  great  moral  as  well  as  physical 
result.  Human  opinions  were  modified,  the  power 
of  man  was  increased. 

It  is  an  illustration  of  the  excellence  and  fertility 
of  modern  methods  of  investigation,  that  the  phenom 
ena  of  attraction  displayed  by  amber,  which  had  been 
known  and  neglected  for  two  thousand  years,  subse 
quently,  in  one  tenth-  of  that  time,  led  to  surprising 
consequences.  First,  it  was  shown  that,  there  are 
many  other  bodies  which  will  act  in  like  manner; 
then -came  the  invention  of  the  electrical  machine;  the 
discovery  of  electrical  repulsion  and  the  spark ;  the 
differences  of  conductibility  in  bodies;  the  two  appar 
ent  species  of  electricity,  vitreous  and  resinous ;  the 
general  law  of  attraction  and  repulsion ;  the  wonder 
ful  phenomena  of  the  Leyden  vial  and  the  electric 
shock;  the  demonstration  of  the  identity  of  lightning 
and  electricity;  the  means  of  protecting  buildings 
and  ships  by  rods ;  the  velocity  of  electric  movement, 
immense  distances  being  passed  through  in  an  inap 
preciable  time ;  the  theory  of  one  fluid  and  that  of 
two ;  the  mathematical  discussion  of  all  the  phenom 
ena,  first  on  one  and  then  'on  the  other  of  those  doc 
trines  ;  the  invention  of  the  torsion  balance ;  the  de 
termination  that  the  attractive  and  repulsive  forces 


ELECTRICAL  DISCOVERIES.  229 

followed  the  law  of  the  inverse  squares ;  the  condi 
tions  of  distribution  on  conductors ;  the  elucidation 
of  the  phenomena  of  induction.  At  length,  when  dis 
covery  seemed  .to  be  pausing,  the  facts  of  galvanism 
were  announced  in  Italy.  Up  to  this  time  it  was 
thought  that  the  most  certain  sign  of  the  death  of  an 
animal  was  its  inability  to  exhibit  muscular  contrac 
tion;  but  now  it  was  shown  that  muscular  move 
ments  .  could  be  excited  in  those  that  were  dead  and 
even  mutilated.  Then  quickly  followed  the  inven 
tion  of  the  Voltaic  pile.  Who  could  have  believed 
that  the  twitching  of  a  frog's  leg,  in  the  experiments 
of  Galvani,  would  give  rise,  in  a  very  few  years,  to 
the  establishment  beyond  all  question  of  the  com 
pound  nature  of  water,  separating  its  constituents 
from  one  another — would  lead  to  the  deflagration 
and  dissipation,  in  a  vapor,  of  metals  that  can  hardly 
be  melted  in  a  furnace — would  show  that  the  solid 
earth  we  tread  upon  is  an  oxide — yield  new  metals 
light  enough  to  swim  upon  water,  and  even  seem  to 
set  it  on  fire — produce  the  most  brilliant  of  all  arti 
ficial  lights,  rivaling,  if  not  excelling,  in  its  intolera 
ble  splendor  the  noontide  sun  —  would  occasion  a 
complete  revolution  in  chemistry,  compelling  that  sci 
ence  to  accept  new  ideas  and  even  a  new  nomencla 
ture — that  it  would  give  us  the  power  of  making 
magnets  capable  of  lifting  more  than  a  ton,  cast  a 
light  on  that  riddle  of  ages,  the  pointing  of  the  mar- 


230  MAGNETIC  DISCOVERIES. 

iner's  compass  north  .and  south,  and  explain  the  mu 
tual  attraction  or  repulsion  of  magnetic  needles — that 
it  would  enable  us  to  form  exquisitely  in  metal  casts 
of  all  kinds  of  objects  of  art,  and  give  workmen  a 
means  of  performing  gilding  and  silvering  without 
risk  to  their  health — that  it  would  suggest  to  the 
evil  disposed  the  forging  of  bank-notes,  the  sophisti 
cating  of  jewelry,  and  be  invaluable  in  the  uttering 
of  false  coinage — that  it  would  carry  the  messages  of 
commerce  and  friendship  instantaneously  across  con 
tinents  or  under  oceans,  and  "  waft  a  sigh  from  Indus 
to  the  Pole !" 

\  et  that  is  only  a  part  of  what  Galvani's  experi 
ment,  carried  out  by  modern  methods,  has  actually 
done.  Could  there  be  a  more  brilliant  instance  of 
their  power,  a  brighter  earnest  of  the  future  of  phys 
ical  philosophy  ? 

The  Venetians  brought  the  use  of  the  magnetic 
needle,  for  the  purposes  of  navigation,  from  China. 
The  properties  of  the  loadstone  had  been  known  both 
in  Europe  and  Asia  from  very  remote  times.  It  at 
tracts  pieces  of  iron,  imparts  its  own  qualities  perma 
nently  to  tempered  steel,  and,  if  floated  on  water  or 
poised  on  a  pivot,  points  north  and  south. 

This  pointing,  however,  in  most  places  is  not  accu 
rate;  there  is  a  certain  deviation  or  declination. 
When  Columbus  made  his  first  voyage  across  the 
Atlantic,  he  found  that  there  was  a  position  about  a 


THE  WONDERS  OF  SCIENCE.  231 

hundred  miles  west  of  the  Azores  where  the  pointing 
was  true.  To  the  meridian  passing  through  this 
place  the  designation  of  the  line  of  no  variation  was 
given.  The  Papal  government,  considering  this  to  be 
a  natural  boundary  between  the  east  and  west  hemi 
spheres  of  the  earth,  made  it  the  dividing-line  be 
tween  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  possessions. 

But,  though  it  was  subsequently  ascertained  that 
this  adjudication  was  founded  on  a  misconception, 
and  that  the  line  of  no  variation  is  unceasingly  mov 
ing,  a  surprising  consequence  followed — the  circum 
navigation  of  the  earth. 

Science  is  full  of  wonders.  The  movements  of  a 
poised  steel  needle  overthrew  opinions  that  had  been 
endorsed  by  the  highest  human  authorities.  It  was 
no  longer  possible  to  maintain  that  the  earth  is  a  flat 
surface  covered  over  writh  the  dome  of  the  sky ;  it  was 
no  longer  po'ssible  to  deny  that  it  is  a  globe  revolving 
round  a  central  sun. 

A  piece  of  rubbed  amber  attracts  a  straw:  that  lit 
tle  fact,  thoroughly  investigated,  leads  to  the  inven 
tion  of  the  electric  telegraph,  and  men  communicate 
with  one  another  instantaneously  across  continents 
and  under  the  bottom  of  oceans.  The  sunshine  com 
ing  through  an  angular  fragment  of  glass  produces 
a  play  of  colors,  and  the  rainbow,  in  the  old  times 
thought  to  be  God's  weapon  resting  against  the 
clouds,  is  explained.  A  straight  stick  dipped  into 


232  THE  WONDERS  OF  SCIENCE. 

water  seems  as  if  it  were  broken,  and  it  follows  that 
we  see  the  sun  before  he  has  risen  and  after  he  has 
set — that,  with  the  exception  of  the  one  that  happens 
to  be  overhead,  all  the  stars  in  the  sky  are  imagined 
to  be  in  places  where  in  reality  they  are  not.  A  ball 
of  glass,  if  looked  through,  magnifies  objects,  a  con 
cave  fragment  diminishes  them :  that  leads  to  the  in 
vention  of  spectacles,  and  the  giving  of  sight  to  the 
blind.  Some  scratches  on  a  polished  piece  of  metal 
set  in  the  sun-rays  exhibit  gaudy  colors  like  a  pea 
cock's  feather,  and  it  follows  that  light  added  to  light 
may  produce  total  darkness.  A  bar  of  iron,  cooled, 
becomes  too  small  to  occupy  completely  a  space  it 
had  previously  filled,  and  therefore  the  apparent  con 
stancy  in  the  size  of  familiar  objects  turns  out  to  be  a 
delusion:  they  are  larger  by  day  than  they  are  by 
night,  they  are  smaller  in  winter  than  in  summer; 
and  if  a  cloud  passes  over  the  sun  all  things  in  the 
shade  diminish,  but  they  regain  their  size  as  soon  as 
his  beams  are  restored.  How  wonderful  is  the  Stereo 
scope,  through  which,  if  we  look  at  two  flat  pictures, 
we  see  but  one,  yet  that  stands  out  with  an  air  of  so 
lidity  and  with  the  deception  of  perspective !  How 
wonderful  the  Microscope,  which  enables  us  to  dis 
cern,  in  living  specks  that  could  creep  through  the 
eye  of  a  needle,  elaborate  and  complicated  organs  for 
respiration,  for  circulation,  for  digestion,  as  perfect  as 
those  of  the  elephant !  How  wonderful  the  Telescope, 


OPPOSITION  TO  SCIENCE.  233 

which  has  revealed  to  us  countless  myriads  of  worlds 
in  the  abysses  of  space,  and  has  forever  destroyed  the 
doctrine  that  the  universe  was  made  for  man  !  How 
wonderful  the  Spectroscope,  which  teaches  us  the  ma 
terial  composition  of  those  distant  orbs,  what  metals, 
what  gases  they  contain,  and  demonstrates  to  us  the 
manner  in  which  systems  of  worlds  arise ! 

But  it  is  in  vain  to  go  on.  I  remarked,  a  few  pages 
back,  that  the  facts  of  science  exceed  the  capacity  of 
any  one  book.  It  is  in  vain  to  attempt  to  do  justice 
to  the  vast  accumulation,  in  vain  to  try  to  set  forth 
the  importance  of  that  glorious  monument  to  the  in 
tellect  of  man. 

Why  is  it  that  in  Europe  the  doctrines  connected 
with  these  facts,  instead  of  being  welcomed  with  de 
light,  have  had  to  fight  their  way  ?  Why  is  it  that 
those  who  have  revealed  them  suffer  obloquy,  in  some 
instances  have  suffered  death  ? 

Why  should  men  be  angry  when  they  are  told  that 
the  sky  is  not  an  empyrean  floor,  but  only  an  optical 
deception,  there  being  nothing  but  space  and  stars  be 
yond  us ;  that  the  earth  is  not  a  flat  and  immovable 
plate,  but  a  swiftly  rushing  globe ;  that  the  rising 
and  setting  of  the  sun  and  the  moon  are  all  a  delu 
sion  ;  that  there  are  people  on  the  other  side  of  the 
earth  whose  feet  are  planted  toward  ours;  that  the 
world  was  not  made  yesterday,  but  is  myriads  of  cen- 


234  OPPOSITION  TO  SCIENCE. 

turies  old ;  that  the  occurrence  of  death  is  not  a  re 
cent  event,  unnumbered  individuals — nay,  even  un 
numbered  races  of  animated  forms  having  passed 
away  before  the  first  man  lived ;  that  climate  modi 
fies  plants  and  animals,  and  even  men ;  that  the  plan 
et  we  inhabit,  if  seen  from  the  sun,  round  which  it  re 
volves,  would  seem  like  a  little  spark ;  that  if  consid 
ered  with  other  orbs,  its  companions  in  the  universe, 
it  is  as  insignificant  as  a  mote  that  dances  in  the  sun 
beam  along  with  its  companion  motes ;  that  the  mo 
tions  of  the  bodies  of  the  solar  system  take  place  un 
der  a  mathematical  necessity,  and  that  the  world  is 
governed  by  law  ? 

What  is  there,  I  ask,  in  such  things  as  these  to  pro 
voke  the  resentment  of  man  ?  Why  is  it  that  he  has 
visited  with  punishment  those  who  first  suggested 
many  of  them,  and  looks  with  jealous  suspicion  on 
those  who  receive  them  as  true  ?  Why  is  it  that  in 
presence  of  the  telegraph,  the  steamship,  the  locomo 
tive,  the  printing-press,  photography,  and  all  the  un 
speakable  triumphs  of  science  in  his  behalf — triumphs 
the  immediate  results  of  the  investigation  and  conclu 
sions  of  science — why  is  it  that  he  tries  to  stamp  an 
odium  on  those  who  devote  themselves  to  the  true 
interpretation  of  Nature  ? 

Is  it  any  answer  to  say  that,  some  fifteen  hundred 
years  ago,  there  was  a  Kornan  general  who  seized  im 
perial  power  from  his  competitors,  and  whose  polit- 


PROTECTION  OF  SCIENCE  IN  AMERICA.  .    235 

ical  necessities  were  sucli  that  he  had  to  inaugurate 
this  untoward  course  ?  Because  he  did  it,  therefore 
we  must  do  it !  That  is  the  only  answer  that  can  be 
made. 

How  different  would  it  have  bee'n  with  the  Papacy, 
had  it  in  its  day  of  power,  instead  of  resisting  the  ad 
vancement  of  human  knowledge,  fostered  and  favored 
it !  How  different  if,  instead  of  perpetually  looking 
backward,  it  had  looked  forward,  and  put  itself  forth 
as  the  promoter  of  intellectual  development ! 

It  falls  to  the  lot  of  the  American  Republic  to  per 
form  the  duty  that  was  declined  by  Rome.  Freedom 
for  man,  so  far  as  his  personal  acts  are  concerned,  is 
already  secured; -but  how  much  still  remains  to  be 
done  for  freedom  of  thought ! 

A  country  that  owes  its  almost  miraculous  mate 
rial  prosperity  to  its  frank  acceptance  of  the  idea  that 
man  can  comprehend  Nature  and  subjugate  her  to  his 
use — a  country  that  furnishes  the  most  brilliant  in 
stance  of  the  conquest  of  Nature  by  man,  owes  it  to 
itself  and  owes  it  to  the  world  to  stand  forth  the  De 
fender  and  Protector  of  thought. 

Western  Europe,  to  which  in  this  particular  we 
owe  so  much,  labors  under  the  dead  weight  of  vast 
ecclesiastical  establishments:  their  influences  ramify 
through  all  the  ranks  of  society.  The  tendency  given 
to  them  by  the  Byzantine  sovereigns  and  by  the  Ro 
man  Papacy  is  unchangeable.  They  will  ever  con- 


236  INTELLECTUAL  FREEDOM. 

tinue  to  be  what  they  have  always  been — the  de 
termined  antagonists  of  science. 

In  those  countries  every  onward  step  that  science 
makes  implies  a  conflict.  In  America,  where  there  is 
no  such  dead  weight,  and  where  the  genius  of  the 
public  institutions  is  so  different,  the  progress  of 
thought  ought  to  be  free. 

But  is  it  so?  Is  there  no  insidious  molestation? 
In  a  land  that  is  netted  with  telegraph  wires,  and 
possessing,  in  a  cheap  post-office  system,  unparalleled 
means  for  the  dissemination  of  thought,  is  it  well  that 
a  new  fact  or  a  new  doctrine  should  be  received  with 
a  jealous  eye,  that  looks  more  to  an  accordance  with 
existing  interests  than  to  absolute  truth  ? 

Intellectual  freedom  must  be  secured  as  completely 
as  the  rights  of  property  and  personal  liberty  have 
been  already  secured.  Philosophical  opinions  and 
scientific  discoveries  are  entitled  to  be  judged  of  by 
their  truth,  not  by  their  relation  to  existing  interests. 
The  motion  of  the  earth  rourrd  the  sun,  the  antiquity 
of  the  globe,  the  origin  of  species,  are  doctrines  which 
have  had  to  force  their  way.  not  against  philosophical 
opposition,  but  opposition  of  a  totally  different  na 
ture.  And  yet  the  interests  which  resisted  them  so 
strenuously  have-  received  no  damage  from  their  es 
tablishment  beyond  that  consequent  on  the  discredit 
of  having  so  resisted  them. 

There  is  no  literary  crime  greater  than  that  of  ex- 


INTELLECTUAL  FREEDOM.  237 

citing  a  social  and  especially  a  theological  odium 
against  ideas  that  are  purely  scientific,  none  against 
which  the  disapproval  of  every  educated  man  ought 
to  be  more  strongly  expressed.  The  republic  of  let 
ters  owes  it  to  its  own  dignity  to  tolerate  no  longer 
offenses  of  that  kind. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ON  THE  NATURAL  COURSE  OF  NATIONAL  DEVELOPMENT. 

The  Organization,  Development,  and  Government  of  the  Nat 
ural  World  are  shown  to  involve  a  continual  tendency  to  con 
centration  of  power,  and  the  conferring  of  a  dominant  control 
on  Intelligence. 

This  principle  applies  in  the  case  of  human  societies  during  their 
political  development.  A  comparison  is  instituted  between  the 
European  method  of  government  through  the  Morals,  and  the 
American  of  government  through  the  Intellect.  It  is  illus 
trated  by  the  history  of  England,  taken  as  a  type  of  the  for 
mer,  and  by  the  history  of  the  United  States,  taken  as  a  type 
of  the  latter. 

It  follows,  from  the  Intellectual  method  adopted,  that  America 
must  be  the  scene  of  a  future  conflict  of  Ideas.  Their  ac 
tion,  reaction,  and  modifications  are  alluded  to,  and  the  scien 
tific  tendency  to  unity  of  opinion  pointed  out. 

And,  finally,  the  analogies  between  the  Italian  ecclesiastical  sys 
tem  and  the  American  civil  system  are  referred  to. 

The  general  object  of  the  chapter  is  to  show  that  in  all  durable 
human  associations  there  is  a  natural,  an  inevitable  tendency 
to  the  concentration  of power  ;  and  that,  so  far  from  this  be 
ing  in  antagonism  to  democratical  institutions,  it  is  their  le 
gitimate  and  unavoidable  result, 

THE  Book  of  Nature,  the  Visible  World,  is  always 
open  to  us  for  our  instruction  and  guidance.  From 
its  pages  we  may  gather  lessons  respecting  the  social 
progress  of  man.  With  silent  emphasis  it  appeals  to 
our  understanding,  whatever  may  be  the  political 


THE  COURSE  OF  NATURE.  .    239 

opinions  we  entertain,  whatever  the  religious  faith 
we  prefer. 

It  is  no  metaphor,  but  a  reality,  that  the  life  of  hu 
man  societies  is  typified  by  the  life  of  plants  and  ani 
mals.  Throughout  the  whole  world  of  organization 
the  scheme  of  Nature  is  the  same. 

I  intend  in  this  chapter,  as  clearly  as  I  can,  to  pre 
sent  that  scheme  of  progress ;  to  explain  its  intention, 
its  aim — to  show  how  human  societies  must  comport 
themselves  and  follow  the  footprints  of  Nature. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  progress  of  such  societies  is 
directed  in  part  by  physical  influences,  and  in  part  by 
the  force  of  Ideas,  but  it  is  always  determined  by  law. 
American  history  furnishes  signal  examples  of  these 
truths.  It  shows  us  that  climate  has  produced  con 
stitutional  differences  between  the  man  of  the  North 
and  the  man  of  the  South;  that  it  has  made  them 
think  differently  and  act  differently;  that  it  has 
brought  into  antagonism  the  enthusiastic  impulsive 
ness  of  the  one  and  the  inexorable  perseverance  of 
the  other. 

Does  not  that  history  also  illustrate  the  political 
force  of  an  Idea  ? 

And  what  is  that  Idea  ?  That  there  shall  exist  on 
this  continent  one  Republic,  great  and  indivisible, 
whose  grandeur  shall  eclipse  the  grandeur  of  Rome 
in  its  brightest  days — sovereign  among  the  Powers 
of  the  earth ,  so  ruling  in  truth,  in  wisdom,  in  justice, 


240  DESTINY  OF  POLITICAL  LIFE. 

in  force,  that  every  human  being,  no  matter  how  ob 
scure  or  desolate  he  may  be,  may  find  in  it  a  refuge 
and  protector ;  that  every  government,  from  the  At 
lantic  Ocean  eastward  to  the  Chinese  Seas,  no  matter 
how  strong  it  may  be,  shall  listen  with  attention  to 
its  suggestions. 

To  convert  that  vision  of  future  greatness  into  a 
reality,  organic  laws  that  are  at  the  basis  of  personal 
liberty  have  been,  without  a  murmur  or  question,  for 
a  season  surrendered ;  a  navy  has  been  created,  no  in 
adequate  antagonist  to  the  navies  of  the  world ;  an 
army  has  been  organized  equal  to  that  of  any  of  the 
greatest  military  monarchies  of  Europe.  For  four 
years  in  succession  eight  hundred  millions  of  dollars 
have  been  spent. .  Rome  never  would  have  permitted 
a  divided  empire  in  Italy:  the  Lion  will  tolerate  no 
competitor  in  his  desert,  the  Eagle  will  endure  no 
rival  in  the  air. 

The  first  act  in  the  drama  of  American  national  life 
is  over.  There  are  many  good  men  who  look  linger- 
ingly  on  the  past,  expecting  its' wished -for  return. 
The  past  never  returns,.  With  our  high  aspirations, 
our  enormous  military  and  industrial  power,  it  is  for 
us  to  turn  our  faces  to  the  future.  There  is  indeed  a 
manifest  destiny  before  us. 

There  is  a  course  through  which  we  must  go.  Let 
us  cast  from  ourselves  the  untrue,  the  unworthy  be 
lief  that  the  will  of  man  determines  the  events  of  this 


ARISTOTLE'S  DISCOVERIES.  241 

world.    National  life  is  shaped  by  something  far  high 
er  than  that ;  it  is  shaped  by  a  stern  logic  of  events. 

In  the  Dark  Ages  they  are  said  to  have  had  magical 
mirrors,  on  which,  if  a  man  looked,  he  might  see  re 
flected  all  the  future  events  of  his  life.  Nature  holds 
up  her  enchanted  mirror  to  us ;  in  the  moving  images 
and  changing  scenery  it  presents  we  may  discern 

what  we  are  about  to  be. 

• 

When  Alexander  the  Great,  the  ablest  man  of  Eu 
ropean  antiquity,  was  engaged  in  the  conquest  of 
Asia,  he  gave  to  Aristotle,  who  had  been  his  instruct 
or,  a  million  of  dollars  and  the  services  of  several 
thousand  men,  to  enable  him  to  write  "  A  History  of 
Animals."  The  organic  world  was  ransacked,  dissec 
tions  were  made,  habits  were  observed,  descriptions 
written,  drawings  executed.  The  view  of  Aristotle, 
that  all  animals  constitute  a  vast  but  a  continuous 
chain — characterized  by  Humboldt,  in  our  own  times, 
as  "  very  grand" — fell,  however,  out  of  sight  after  the 
death  of  Greece  and  the  dissolution  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  the  hybrid  population  subsequently  inhabit 
ing  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  being  wholly  un 
able  to  rise  to  such  magnificent  conceptions.  They 
were  occupied  with  baser  thoughts. 

Not  until  our  own  century  have  men  been  able  to 
recover  and  appreciate  that  great  idea.  At  length  it 
has  been  thoroughly  incorporated  into  modern  physi- 

Q 


242  THE  ORGANIC  SERIES. 

ology.  We  shall  see,  to  our  surprise,  that  it  is  one 
of  the  keys  of  history. 

To  the  eye  of  the  Physiologist  all  animated  forms 
present  themselves  as  one  continuous  chain — the  Or 
ganic  Series  he  calls  them.  Commencing  in  lowly 
beginnings,  that  are  doubtfully  separated  from  the 
vegetable  world,  they  rise  by  continuous,  by  un 
broken  stages  to  the  highest — that  is;  to  man.  It 
is  the  object  of  his  study  to  ascertain  the  construc 
tion,  the  anatomy  of  each  of  the  essential  links  in  that 
organic  chain,  and  to  observe  the  result,  for  the  habits 
and  instincts  of  these  various  beings  are  the  conse 
quences  of  their  conformation.  This  work  of  prodig 
ious  labor  accomplished,  it  is  his  hope  to  be  able  to 
attain  to  a  comprehension  of  the  whole  scheme — to 
appreciate  the  creative  thought  that  pervades  it — that 
has,  in  fact,  called  it  into  existence ;  a  study  surpass 
ing  in  its  sublimity  even  the  grandeur  of  astronomy, 
and,  like  it,  teaching  us  to  appreciate  the  thoughts 
and  intentions  of  the  Sovereign  Constructor  of  the 
universe. 

Though  very  far  from  its  completion,  this  study  al 
ready  enables  us  to  discern,  it  may  be  darkly,  the 
grand  plan.  In  this,  the  twilight  of  the  breaking 
morning  of  human  intelligence,  we  begin  to  perceive 
some  of  the  bolder  features  of  that  landscape  which 
hereafter,  in  the  noontide  of  human  reason,  will  be 
.spread  out,  a  vast  panorama,  before  our  descendants. 


GRADUAL  CONTROL  OF  INTELLECT.  243 

Already  we  trace  the  course  of  Nature,  we  see  the 
intention  of  this  world  of  life. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  vista  of  organization 
the  forms  are  obscure,  in  structure  simple,  in  habit 
low.  Like  the  contrivances  invented  by  man,  they 
are  mere  automatons.  As  in  a  machine,  if  we  touch 
a  given  spring  a  given  motion  will  be  produced,  so 
these,  acting  unconsciously,  move  under  the  impulse 
inflicted.  But,  by  a  gradual  unfolding  of  structure, 
part  developing  from  part  and  function  emerging  from 
function,  a  higher  stage  is  reached — to  automatism 
instinct  is  added.  The  innumerable  tribes  exempli 
fying  this  state  excite  our  admiration  by  the  orderly 
manner  in  which  they  accomplish  their  predestined 
works,  the  bee  building  its  comb,  the  spider  construct 
ing  his  web.  But  among  these  it  is  to  be  particular 
ly  observed  that  the  qualities  of  the  more  lowly  tribes 
are  still  present ;  automatism  has  not  been  displaced 
by  instinct,  but  instinct  has  been,  as  it  were,  super 
posed,  and  both  co-exist.  Still  looking  along  the 
chain  as  we  advance,  once  more  we  recognize  a  rep 
etition  of  the  same  process,  or,  more  correctly,  the 
gradual  addition  of  something  higher.  Instinct  is 
unfolding  itself  into  Intelligence.  The  animated  be 
ing  shows  reasoning  powers,  at  every  successive  rising 
link  increasing  in  precision  and  perfection — the  adap 
tation  of  purposed  means  to  the  accomplishment  of 
wished-for  ends.  The  Dog  forms  his  plans ;  his  mas- 


24:4:  GRADUAL  CONTROL  OF  INTELLECT. 

ter  relates  with  admiration  how  he  has  watched  him 
proceed  in  carrying  them  out,  persuading  himself  that 
there  is  something  approaching*  to  wisdom  even  in 
the  brute.  Here  again,  as  in  the  former  case,  the  new 
faculty  has  not  destroyed  the  old  one,  but  intelligence 
is  co-existing  both  with  instinct  and  with  automatism. 

This,  then,  is  the  sum  of  the  matter.  From  a  pure 
ly  mechanical  state,  appropriately  termed  automatism, 
a  higher  state,  the  Instinctive,  is  educed ;  from  that, 
in  its  turn,  a  gtill  higher — the  Intelligent.  And,  view 
ing  the  organic  series  from  end  to  end,  this  is  the  af 
firmation  that  may  be  made :  the  course  of  Nature  is 
for  the  development  and  concentration  of  Intellect. 

I  have  abstained  from  burdening  this  description 
with  anatomical  discoveries  and  details;  they  are 
scarcely  suitable  for  the  present  occasion.  In  that 
respect  it  is  perhaps  enough  to  say  that  the  structure 
connected  with  these  wonderful  acts  is  the  nervous 
system.  In  the  lowliest  tribes  it  is,  as  it  were,  rudi 
mentary,  its  action  purely  mechanical.  Next,  offshoots 
of  that  rudiment  appear,  dedicated  to  special  purposes 
—ganglia,  as  anatomists  call  them — intended  to  re 
ceive  the  impressions  of  sound  and  of  light.  Step  by 
step  the  development,  the  concentration  proceeds,  un 
til  a  most  important  stage  is  eventually  reached.  In 
the  region  of  the  head  a  special  mass,  or  rather  pair 
of  masses,  appears,  having  direct  connections  of  its 
own,  by  means  of  nerves,  with  all  parts  of  the  body. 


THE  CONCENTRATION  OF  POWER.  245 

This  organ,  the  cephalic  ganglia,  soon  indicates  what 
it  is  for — a  control  and  government  over  all  the  rest. 
The  impressions  they  receive  are  carried  to  it ;  its  vo 
litions  are  sent  back  to  them. 

Here  we  may  pause  a  moment  to  make  this  signifi 
cant  remark — everything  is  tending  to  a  concentra 
tion  of  power. 

In  man  each  of  these  typical  «parts  is  present,  and 
discharges,  the  duties  we  have  described.  There  is 
the  spinal  cord,  acting  automatically;  there  are  the 
same  special  ganglia  for  breathing  and  swallowing; 
there  are  the  same  parts  for  hearing,  sight,  smell ;  the 
same  governing  ganglia.  He  therefore  combines  the 
automatic  and  the  instinctive  apparatus. 

But  it  is  to  be  especially  observed  that,  as  we  ad 
vance  toward  him  through  animals  which,  though  in 
ferior  to  him,  are  high  in  the  scale  of  life,  another 
most  important  part  appears :  we  recognize  it  as  the 
brain.  The  moment  we  discern  that,  reasoning  pow 
ers  are  present,  the  degree  of  intelligence  becoming 
more  strikingly  marked  as  the  development  of  the 
new  organ  is  greater.  * 

In  the  nervous  system  of  man  there  are,  therefore, 
three  essentially  distinct  parts — the  spinal  cord,  the 
ganglia  of  sense,  the  brain.  Of  the  first,  the  action  is 
purely  automatic;  by  its  aid  we  walk  without  be 
stowing  a  thought  on  our  movements  from  place ,  to 
place ;  we  breathe  without  knowing  it.  The  second 


246  THE  CONCENTRATION  OF  POWER. 

is  the  place  of  reception  of  the  impressions  of  external 
things — light,  sound,  odors;  it  is  also  the  seat  of 
consciousness;  it  is  the  instinctive  mechanism.  The 
third,  the  brain,  is  anatomically  distinct.  It  is  the 
theatre  of  ideas,  the  realm  of  thought,  the  instrument 
through  which  the  mind  works. 

There  is,  therefore,  a  regular  progression,  a  definite 
improvement  in  this*  ascending  gradation  of  animal 
life  from  the  lowest  to  the  superior;  the  plan  never 
varying,  but  being  persistently  carried  out.  It  begins 
with  automatism,  it  advances  to  instinct,  it  reaches  in 
telligence.  In  fishes  a  true  brain  first  appears ;  it  has 
received  an  improvement  in  reptiles ;  it  advances  still 
farther  in  birds.  In  that  same  order  the  rate  of  in 
telligence  advances.  Man  presents  the  utmost  perfec 
tion  thus  far  attained.  His  brain  has  reached  a  max 
imum  organization  by  a  continued  and  unbroken  pro 
cess  of  development. 

If  I  have  made  myself  understood  in  this  orderly 
development  of  the  ascending  scale  of  animals,  I  shall 
not  be  misunderstood  in  obscurely  referring  to  what, 
if  the  occasion  permitted,  I  might  dwell  upon  in  de 
tail.  Identically  the  same  orderly  progress  is  recog 
nized  in  the  life  of  individual  man.  The  primitive 
trace,  as  it  faintly  appears  in  the  germinal  membrane, 
marks  out  the  automatic  apparatus ;  that  is  followed 
by  the  instinctive,  for  not  until  the  twelfth  week  of 
life  have  we  reached  the  condition  permanently  pre- 


INTELLECTUAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  WOULD.       247 

sented  by  birds ;  a  little  later  tlie  brain  is  brought 
into  a  complete  state ;  and  thus  it  appears  that  man 
proceeds  through  the  same  predetermined  succession 
of  forms. 

But  that  is  not  all.  The  biography  of  the  earth, 
the  life  of  the  entire  globe,  corresponds  to  this  prog 
ress  of  the  Individual,  to  this  orderly  advance  of  the 
animal  series,  as  it  is  the  glory  of  Geology  to  have 
shown.  Commencing  with  the  oldest  rocks  that  fur 
nish  organic  remains,  and  advancing  to  the  most  re 
cent,  we  recognize  the  same  continuous  course  of  con 
struction. 

What  is  the  object,  the  end  of  all  these  successive 
phases  of  life  ?  Intellectual  development. 

Ask  the  Anatomist ;  he  points  you  to  the  career  of 
individual  man,  from  the  first  dawn  of  life  to  its  close, 
and  tells  you  that  every  thing  is  aiming  at  Intellect. 

Ask  the  Physiologist;  he  bids  you  consider  the 
vast  series  of  animated  forms  inhabiting  the  earth 
with  us.  He  affirms  that  we  are  reflected  in  them ; 
and  that,  as  their  advancement  in  the  predetermined 
direction  is  greater,  so  is  the  order  of  their  intelligence 
higher.  — 

Ask  the  Geologist,  and  he  will  declare  that  those 
conclusions  hold  good  in  the  history  of  the  earth,  and 
that  there  has  been  an  orderly  improvement  in  intel 
lectual  power  among  the  beings  who  have  successive 
ly  inhabited  it. 


248  OKGANIZATION  OF  NATIONAL  INTELLECT. 

The  sciences,  therefore,  affirm  that  the  great  aim  of 
Nature  is  to  reach  controlling  intellect.  They  pro 
claim  that  the  successive  stages  of  every  individual, 
from  its  earliest  rudiment  to  maturity;  the  number 
less  organic  beings  now  living  with  us  and  constitu 
ting  the  animal  series;  the  orderly  appearance  of  that 
grand  succession  which,  in  the  slow  lapse  of  time,  has. 
emerged  —  all  these  three  great  lines  of  the  manifest 
ation  of  life  furnish  not  only  evidence,  but  also 
proof  of  the  dominion  of  invariable  law.  The  princi 
ple  is  to  advance  from  automatism  to  instinct,  from 
instinct  to  intelligence.  In  man  himself  the  three  dis 
tinct  modes  of  life  occur  in  an  epochal  order,  through 
childhood  to  the  most  perfect  state ;  and  this  holding 
good  for  the  individual,  since  it  is  physiologically  im 
possible  to  separate  him  from  the  race,  what  holds 
good  for  the  one  must  hold  good  for  the  other  too. 
Hence  man  is  truly  the  archetype  of  society.  His  de 
velopment  is  the  model  of  what  social  progress  must 
be. 

What,  then,  is  the  conclusion  inculcated  by  these 
doctrines  as  regards  the  social  progress  of  great  com 
munities  ?  It  is,  that  all  political  institutions,  imper 
ceptibly  or  visibly,  spontaneously  or  purposely,  should 
tend  to  the  improvement  and  organization  of  Nation 
al  Intellect. 

A  nation  may  from  this  grand  example  trace  out 
its  proper  course.  The  body  politic,  like  the  body 


UNIVERSAL  EDUCATION.  249 

personal,  must  be  ruled  "by  its  intellect.  It  is  of  no 
use  to  affirm  that  the  foot,  or  the  hand,  or  the  stom 
ach  can  guide  as  well  as  the  head.  The  social  ma 
chine  is  composed  of  parts,  each  of  which  has  its  own 
appropriate  duty  to  do. 

Already  enlightened  governments  discern  the  truth 
of  this.  They  rest  their  expectations,  their  hopes  of 
society,  on  universal  education,  compulsory  if  need  be, 
to  give  to  each  one  the  opportunity  of  improvement 
up  to  the  point  that  Nature  has  permitted  for  him. 

But  education  is  a  term  of  wide  import.  That  de 
manded  by  modern  times  must  represent  the  contem 
poraneous  knowledge  of  the  race.  The  defect  of  our 
present  systems  is  this— that  they  look  too  much  to 
the  past;  they  deal  too  much  with  the  doubtful,  too 
little  with  the  exact. 

A  dozen  rich  gentlemen  may  meet  together  and 
proceed  to  build  a  railroad  across  the  continent,  or 
lay  a  telegraphic  wire  under  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 
They  may  do  whatever  is  possible  to  the  omnipo 
tence  of  wealth.  But,  though  all  Americans  should 
constitute  themselves  a  joint -stock  company,  they 
never,  by  any  votes  or  any  resolves,  could  call  into 
existence  a  great  soldier,  a  great  lawgiver,  a  great 
philosopher.  They  could  never  create  a  Newton,  a 
Milton,  an  Alexander.  Talent  is  a  God-given  gift. 

Then,  though  public  education  is  an  eminent  ad 
vantage,  it  is  far  from  being  every  thino-.  The  ad- 


250  TIIE  FOSTERING  OF  NATIVE  TALENT. 

vancement  of  a  nation  to  greatness  demands  that  not 
only  shall  every  individual  be  instructed,  but  that  the 
career  shall  be  open  to  talent.  That  principle  was 
thoroughly  understood  by  the  great  Italian  statesmen 
who  for  so  many  centuries  controlled  European  af 
fairs.  They  found  out  and  fostered  intellect  wherever 
they  could.  How  often  did  they  take  the  cowl  from 
the  monk,  and  give  him  in  exchange  a  mitre !  It  sig 
nified  nothing  to  them  that  the  greatest  churchman 
might  have  come  from  the  lowest  dregs  of  society. 
Wealth,  and  splendors,  and  worldly  dignity  they 
could  amply  bestow;  Intellect  they  were  obliged  to 
find. 

For  stability  to  be  attained,  a  nation  must  submit 
to  be  controlled  by  its  reason ;  it  must  organize  its 
intellect,  it  must  concentrate  it. 

There  are  but  three  powers  that  can  organize  the 
world — theology,  literature,  science.  Europe  has  tried 
the  first ;  her  present  condition  shows  what  is  the  ut 
most  it  can  do.  China  has  tried  the  second,  and  has 
become  conceited  and  exclusive.  It  has  been  truly 
affirmed  that  for  these  purposes  science  has  this  ad 
vantage  over  literature,  that  it  admits  of  universal 
communion. 

Let  us  not,  however,  fall  into  the  delusion  of  ex 
pecting  what  will  never  happen  from  such  social  or 
ganization;  the  very  term  itself  implies,  on  the  one 
hand,  superiority;  on  the  other,  subordination.  Do 


SOCIAL  SUBORDINATION.  251 

what  we  may,  no  organization,  no  education  will  ever 
make  all  men  alike.  By  far  the  most  numerous  por 
tion  of  our  race  must  devote  itself  to  labor,  scarcely 
ever  learning  any  thing  except  what  concerns  its  daily 
toil :  whatever  improvement  it  attains  to  is  by  mere 
imitation.  It  follows  its  hereditary  instincts,  having 
no  idea  of  progress,  none  of  development.  Governed 
by  external  influences  and  by  its  own  appetites,  it  can 
neither  combine  nor  generalize.  -Its  movements  alto 
gether  depend  on  the  unrecognized  influence  of  exter 
nal  agents.  That  vast  mass,  like  a  cloud,  drifts  along 
to  its  destiny  in  an  invisible  wind. 

In  our  nation  there  has  been  a  period  of  material 
prosperity,  of  which  I  think  we  shall  all  agree  in  say 
ing  that  it  has  had  no  parallel  in  the  world.  Wealth, 
honorably  acquired,  has  poured  in  upon  us  until  we 
have  become  blinded  to  all  things  else.  Here  and 
there  a  thoughtful  man  may  be  found  who  has  seen 
with  misgivings  that  it  is  not  spiritual,  but  physical 
aspirations  that  have  heretofore  predominated  among 
us.  How  true  it  is  that,  for  a  nation  to  be  great,  it 
must  aim  at  something  above  its  animal  nature ! 
'  We  are  in  the  act  of  transition  from  the  animal  to 
the  intellectual.  War,  civil  war,  with  its  dread  pun 
ishments,  is  not  without  its  uses.  In  no  other  school 
than  that  of  war  can  society  learn  subordination,  in 
no  other  can  it  be- made  to  appreciate  order.  It  may 
be  true,  as  has  been  affirmed,  that  men  secretly  love 


252  GROWTH  AND  DIFFERENTIATION. 

to  obey  those  whom  they  feel. to  be  their  superiors 
intellectually.  In  military  life  they  learn  to  practice 
that  obedience  openly. 

I  turn  from  the  hideous  contemplation  of  a  disor 
ganization  of  the  Republic,  each  state,  and  county,  and 
town  setting  up  for  itself,  and  the  continent  swarming 
with  the  maggots  bred  from  the  dead  body  politic.  I 
turn  from  that  to  a  future  I  see  in  prospect — an  impe 
rial  race  organizing  its  intellect,  concentrating  it,  and 
voluntarily  submitting  to  be  controlled  by  its  reason ; 
a  race  despising  that  low  grade  of  life  into  which  its 
enemies  have  tauntingly  said  that  it  has  descended, 
and  that,  like  certain  base  animals,  it  may  be  sponta 
neously  dissevered  into  a  multitude  of  parts,  each  be 
ing  as  good  as  any  of  the  rest,  and  capable  of  the  same 
obscene  separations  again. 

In  thus  asserting  that  in  all  human  communities,  as 
their  life  advances,  there  must  be  a  continual  tenden 
cy  to  a  concentration  of  power  and  a  development  of 
intellect,  I  am  presenting  the  conclusions  of  observers 
of  Nature. 

Physiologists  say  that  growth  is  an  increase  in  the 
size  of  a  structure  of  any  kind,  no  variation  occurring 
in  the  character  of  the  fabric  or  in  the  functions  it 
discharges;  but  differentiation  is  an  increase  involv 
ing  modification  of  fabric  and  assumption  of  new 
functions. 

The  lowest  plants  simply  grow;  they  increase  by 


DIFFERENTIATION.  253 

the  addition  of  units  or  parts  of  the  same  kind  and 
having  the  same  office.  They  have  no  mutual  de 
pendence  except  that  consequent  on  their  mere  me 
chanical  union.  They  may  be  cut  to  pieces,  and,  as 
we  have  just  observed,  each  portion  is  as  perfect,  as 
good  as  the  rest.  Each  individually,  and  all  conjoint 
ly,  are  very  low. 

But  in  the  highest  plants  there  is  something  more. 
At  one  point  roots  are  put  forth,  at  another  leaves,  at 
another  flowers.  The  duty  of  the  root  is  to  hold  the 
plant  in  the  ground,  and  furnish  it  with  water  and 
some  salts ;  that  of  the  leaves,  to  procure  nutriment 
from  the  air ;  that  of  the  flowers,  to  reproduce  plants 
of  the  same  kind.  These  various,  these  different  or 
gans  have  been  evolved  or  differentiated  for  those 
purposes. 

The  same  remark  applies  to  animals.  In  the  low 
est,  breathing,  digestion,  and  all  the  various  other 
functions  needful  for  life  are  confusedly  blended  to 
gether,  and  obscurely  discharged  by  the  self-same 
part.  In  the  highest,  special  organs,  the  lungs,  the 
stomach,  etc.,  have  been  differentiated  from  the  grow 
ing  mass  for  these  special  functions. 

Now  we  must  particularly  remark  the  manner  in 
which  all  this  is  done.  If,  for  a  new  purpose,  a  new 
organ  is  wanted,  Nature  never  fashions  it  in  secret  or 
apart,  finishing  her  work  by  attaching  the  new  pro 
duct  to  the  structure  intended  to  be  improved.  Men, 


254  POLITICAL  DIFFERENTIATION. 

when  they  design  to  improve  a  house,  bring  the  nec 
essary  materials  from«  elsewhere,  and  make  their  ad 
dition  by  attaching  it.  Not  so  with  Nature:  She 
evolves  from  what  is  already  pre  -  existing  —  there 
cornes*an  outshoot,  not  an  addition.  Thus,  in  the  il 
lustration  we  have  referred  to,  she  makes  flowers  from 
parts  that,  had  the  differentiation  been  otherwise, 
might  have  been  leaves. 

It  is,  as  I  have  said,  no  metaphor,  but  a  reality,  that 
human  societies  are  typified  by  plants  and  animals. 
Both,  in  their  lowest  grades,  are  aggregates  increasing 
by  the  addition  of  parts,  each  of  which  is  similar,  and 
acts  similarly  to  all  its  fellows.  In  a  tribe  of  savages 
each  man  does  every  thing  for  himself.  By  degrees 
special  pursuits  pass  into  the  hands  of  particular  in 
dividuals.  The  process  goes  on  until  three  distinct 
social  divisions  are  established — a  laboring  class,  a 
trading  or  transferring  class,  an  intellectual  class. 
Political  differentiation  has  taken  place. 

Society  thus  passes  through  a  definite,  an  orderly 
succession  of  changes.  It  grows  at  first  by  the  addi 
tion  of  units;  then,  under  internal  and  external  influ 
ences,  it  begins  to  differentiate. 

/  O 

In  individual  man  how  strikingly,  also,  is  the  same 
thing  perceived !  It  is  not  a  mere  growth  or  devel 
opment  alone  that  occurs ;  but  when  that  process  has 
gone  on  to  a  certain  extent,  a  new  condition  of  things 
abruptly  takes  place,  a  difference  in  structure,  a  dif- 


DIFFERENTIATION  AND  DEVELOPMENT.  255 

fereuce  in  function  suddenly  arising  —  suddenly,  yet, 
as  we  find  when  we  examine  the  matter  critically,  in 
a  necessary  and  inevitable  way ;  for  the  new  things 
have  issued  forth  from  the  old  by  an  insensible  shad 
ing,  so  that  we  can  not  tell  at  what  time  the  one  end 
ed  or  when  the  other  began.  In  spite  of  the  rapidity 
with  which  the  change  may  have  taken  place,  we  still 
discern  consecutive  points  bearing  a  determinate  rela 
tion  to  one  another.  Development  thus  gives  rise  to 
differentiation :  they  do  not  stand  in  an  attitude  of 
antagonism. 

It  is  immaterial  whether  we  consider  the  entire  hu 
man  body  in  the  aggregate,  or  limit  ourselves  to  the 
investigation  of  its  constituent  parts;  whether  we 
describe  man  existing  as  a  water-breathing,  and  then 
abruptly  at  his  first  respiration  as  an  air-breathing 
animal ;  or  whether,  descending  to  minor  details,  we 
investigate  the  structure  of  his  digestive,  circulating, 
absorbing,  or  other  parts,  and  the  duties  they  dis 
charge.  As  his  development  goes  on,  differentiation 
in  a  necessary  manner,  at  determinate  epochs,  takes 
place ;  and  thus  he  proceeds  through  a  multitude  of 
forms  in  an  orderly  succession,  each  form  issuing  from 
the  preceding  one  in.  an  unavoidable  way.  Nor  is 
there  any  possibility  that  a  single,  step  in  the  whole 
progress  can  be  omitted.  What  better  proof  can  we 
have  of  the  determinate  character  of  this  advance 
than  the  fact  that  it  is  repeated,  with  all  its  peculiar- 


256  LAW  OF  VON  BAR. 

ities  of  epochs  and  phases,  by  every  individual  ?  The 
complete  and  affiliated  series  of  embryonic  forms  pre 
sented  in  the  early  period  of  the  life  of  man  is  only 
an  exemplification  that  he  is  held  fast  in  the  grasp  of 
those  laws  which  control  all  other  animals. 

So,  in  communities,  development  takes  place  from 
point  to  point;  it  issues  in  their  numerical  increase, 
their  geographical  spread,  their  growth.  For  a  while, 
from  year  to  year,  it  may  offer  no  point  of  perceptible 
change,  but  at  last  differentiation  occurs — not  so  ab 
ruptly  as  in  the  instance  of  the  individual,  for  the 
general  scale  of  time  has  been  enlarged.  It  makes  it 
self  manifest  by  a  cessation  of  the  old  and  an  exhibi 
tion  of  the  new — by  an  abandonment  of  former  habits 
of  action,  by  an  appearance  of  new  modes  of  thought. 
The  society  that  has  passed  through  such  an  epoch 
looks  back  on  its  history  with  surprise,  half  wonder 
ing  whether  it  can  be  really  true  that  it  once  concern 
ed  itself  in  actions  now  appearing  so  unsuitable  and 
unworthy — that  it  once  was  sincerely  engaged  with 
mental  conceptions  now  seeming  to  be  so  clearly  fal 
lacious. 

The  law  of  development,  known  among  physiolo 
gists  as  that  of  Von  Bar,  and  pf  the  truth  of  which 
there  is  now  abundant  proof,  is  to  the  effect  that  "the 
heterogeneous  arises  from  the  homogeneous  by  a  grad 
ual  process  of  change."  Thus,  from  the  starting-point 
of  all  living  forms — a  simple  cell — there  are  unfolded 


DIFFERENTIATION  OF  COMMUNITIES.  257 

in  a  proper  order  successive  parts  devoted  to  special 
duties,  and  from  these,  in  their  turn,  in  like  manner 
secondary  and  tertiary  subdivisions  arise,  the  duty 
discharged  in  the  first  instance  by  the  aggregate  be 
ing  now  accomplished  by  the  special  portions,  and 
therefore  in  a  more  complete  and  perfect  way. 

What  thus  takes  place  in  the  individual  also  takes 
place  in  the  nation.  We  deceive  ourselves  when  we 
suppose  that  the  process  of  human  affairs  is  ever  dis 
turbed  by  the  intrusion  of  things  that  are  intrinsical 
ly  new.  Every  event,  no  matter  how  abruptly  it  may 
occur,  is,  if  we  carefully  consider  it,  indissolubly  affili 
ated  with  events  that  have  gone  before,  and  draws  in 
its  train  others  that  of  necessity  follow.  In  this,  as  in 
the  former  instance,  we  never  encounter  the  appear 
ance  of  incongruous  things,  but  all  proceeds  in  an  or 
derly  way.  Our  daily  experience  assures  us  that  for 
the  success  of  any  human  undertaking  opportunity  is 
essential.  Without  that  the  greatest  genius  and  the 
greatest  exertions  are  spent  in  vain.  The  physiolog 
ical  law  of  Von  Bar  holds  as  good  in  race  advance 
ment  as  it  does  in  individual.  Its  action  is  expressed 
in  both  instances  in  a  similar  manner. 

It  is  through  the  general  operation  of  this  law  that 
communities  emerge  from  the  lowest  grades  of  social 
life — from  that  barbarous  condition  in  which  all  indi 
viduals  are  occupied  in  all  pursuits,  and  especially  ex 
celling  in  none;  in  which  the  avocations  of  the  farm- 

R 


258  THE  INDIVIDUAL  AND  SOCIETY. 

er,  the  huntsman,  the  mechanic,  are  all  equally  dis 
charged  by  each  individual.  It  is  through  the  opera 
tion  of  this  law  that,  as  society  is  advancing  in  its 
course  from  that  confused  condition  in  which  all 
things  were  blended  together,  that  special  duties  and 
special  avocations  begin  to  emerge;  through  it  the 
process  of  partition  and  separation,  as  expressed  in 
the  different  trades  and  occupations,  is  continued ; 
through  it  the  skilled  labor  of  civilized  communities 
results.  In  thus  applying  a  physiological  law  hold 
ing  good  for  the  individual  to  this  our  social  state, 
we  indulge  in  no  fictitious  hypothesis.  Society  is 
only  an  aggregate  of  individuals ;  whatever  affects, 
whatever  regulates  each  of  them,  must  affect  and  reg 
ulate  it  also.  Its  actions  are  the  sum  of  their  actions. 
By  the  light  thrown  from  the  history  of  the  indi 
vidual  on  that  of  society,  we  ascertain  the  true  inter 
pretation  of  the  successive  stages  in  the  course  of  the 
latter,  and  determine  the  value  of  each  of  its  constit 
uent  parts;  that,  equally  in  the  one  as  in  the  other, 
the  first  moments  are  devoted  to  the  necessities  of  an 
imal  existence,  and  only  by  degrees  does  the  intellect 
ual  begin  to  emerge.  The  first  phases  of  life,  no  mat 
ter  what  may  be  the  scale  on  which  we  consider  it, 
individual  or  social,  are  essentially  vegetative,  the  op 
eration  being,  as  the  advance  goes  on,  to  disentangle 
the  intellectual  from  the  clogs  that  are  attached  to  it, 
and  at  last  to  accomplish  its  isolation.  As  by  such 


PERSONS  AND  PARTICLES.  259 

partitions  and  separations  it  increases  in  purity,  it 
also  increases  in  power,  until,  in  the  end,  it  becomes 
the  authoritative,  the  governing,  and  regulating  prin 
ciple,  subjecting  all  other  things  to  its  dominion. 

We  may  therefore  transfer  from  the  individual  to 
society  all  those  phenomena  of  equilibrium  and  move 
ment  observed  by  Physiologists.  In  the  same  man 
ner  that  we  see  in  the  individual  organic  particles  in 
all  stages  of  activity  and  decline,  some  subserving 
one,  some  another  duty,  so  in  society  we  distinguish 
between  the  uses  and  conditions  of  different  persons. 
It  is  to  be  remembered  that  Persons  are  the  equiva 
lent  of  Particles.  Notwithstanding  this  diversity  of 
their  functions,  all,  without  any  exception,  are  under 
the  necessity  of  submitting  to  the  same  laws,  and 
therefore  run  through  similar  cycles  of  motion,  having 
a  period  at  which  they  make  their  appearance  as  or 
ganic  elements,  a  period  at  which  they  enter  upon 
their  destined  duty,  a  period  of  maximum  develop 
ment  and  force,  one  also  of  decline.  And  as  in  the 
individual  we  find  particles  of  different  constitutions 
arranged  in  different  places  for  the  proper  perform 
ance  of  their  functions,  so  the  social  grades  and  sev 
eral  occupations  of  men  answer  thereto.  Seen  in  this 
light,  it  is  plain  that  all  have  a  duty  to  discharge — a 
duty  not  alone  to  themselves,  but  to  the  aggregate  of 
which  they  form  a  part,  and  to  the  well-being  of 
which  they  are  essential.  All,  therefore,  in  one  sense, 


260  PERFORMANCE  OF  SPECIAL  DUTIES. 

are  equal,  for  each  has  an  indispensable  duty  allotted, 
each  being  equally  useful,  equally  worthy.  The  in 
tellectual  relations  of  society  can  not  be  maintained 
save  by  the  aid  of  its  organic  relations,  any  more  than 
the  intellectual  functions  of  the  individual  can  be  suc 
cessfully  accomplished  except  by  the  co-operation  of 
the  functions  of  organic  life.  How  is  it  possible  that 
the  brain,  in  one  sense  the  most  noble  portion  of  the 
human  economy,  should  discharge  its  duty  aright,  or 
even  discharge  it  at  all,  unless  the  subordinate  organs 
of  circulation,  respiration,  digestion,  carry  forward  at 
a  determinate  rate  their  more  humble  yet  necessary 
duties  ? 

Such  considerations  teach  us  how  visionary  are  the 
expectations  of  those  who  hope  to  produce,  either  by 
legal  enactments  or  the  artificial  operation  of  educa 
tion,  an  equality  among  the  constituent  parts  of  the 
social  organism.  In  the  body  of  man  all  is  not  for 
intellection,  all  is  not  for  nutrition  or  assimilation- 
there  is  a  diversity  of  duties,  which,  for  perfection, 
must  be  harmoniously  blended.  And  so  in  society, 
which  is  a  vast  individual — a  great  living,  feeling, 
thinking  mass — if  its  development  is  to  go  on  to  the 
utmost  perfection,  there  must  be  a  similar  subordina 
tion  of  office  implying  a  subordination  of  parts. 
Some,  and  by  far  the  larger  portion,  must  devote 
themselves  to  duties  of  a  wholly  material  nature ;  in 
this  representing  those  particles  which,  in  the  Individ- 


PUBLIC  AND  PRIVATE  RELATIONS.        261 

ual,  discharge  the  humbler  offices  of  organic  life,  and 
provide  for  the  nutrition  and  development  of  the 
body;  some,  on  the  other  hand,  and  these  relatively 
but  few  in  number,  are  more  immediately  connected 
with  the  higher  functions — the  operations  of  intellect. 
Of  these  it  is  the  especial,  the  unavoidable  duty  to 
exercise  a  direct  influence  over  all.  In  China,  where 
this  principle  is  recognized  in  practical  politics,  they 
deride  Occidental  democracy,  and  consider  us  as  hard 
ly  emerged  from  a  barbarous  state,  who  commit  gov 
erning  power  to  those  w^ho  are  altogether  animalized, 
and  can  neither  read  nor  write,  instead  of  making  in 
tellectual  power  a  measure  of  political  control,  as  is 
the  case  in  their  system  of  statesmanship,  which,  on 
a  comparatively  small  geographical  surface,  governs 
dense  masses  of  men. 

A  closer  examination  of  the  relations  of  the  constit 
uent  particles  of  the  body  indicates  to  us  that  they 
are  capable  of  a  twofold  division,  each  having  connec 
tions  of  an  interior  kind,  which,  as  it  were,  concern  it 
self  alone,  and  also  others  of  an  exterior  kind,  which 
it  maintains  with  the  whole  organism.  In  a  meta 
phorical  manner  we  may  thus  say  that  it  has  private 
and  public  engagements ;  and,  considering  the  matter 
critically,  we  can  not  fail  to  detect  that  the  former  are 
essentially  of  a  lower  kind :  they  are  indeed  subordi 
nate  to  the  latter,  for  the  sake  of  which  they  in  reali 
ty  exist.  Transferring  our  thoughts  in  this  particular 


262  PUBLIC  AND  PK1VATE  RELATIONS. 

from  the  individual  body  to  the  body  politic,  we  see 
how  great  a  mistake  we  commonly  make  in  our  ap 
preciation  of  such  relations.  In  the  individual  how 
plausibly  we  magnify  the  importance  of  private  life, 
and  diminish  the  value  of  the  public  connection  !  Yet 
it  is  for  the  latter,  not  for  the  former,  that  a  person  is 
brought  into  existence.  He  will  have  done  well  if, 
in  those  general  relations,  he  has  rightly  discharged 
his  duty;  nor  can  any  excellence  in  the  private  con 
duct  compensate  for  any  deficiency  in  the  -public. 
Too  often  we  invert  the  sentiment  on  the  value  of 
which  I  am  here  insisting,  and  gratify  a  vain  selfish 
ness  by  concluding  that  we  have  been  brought  into 
the  world  each  for  the  sake  of  himself;  that  our  con 
tinuance  here  is  for  our  own  individual  benefit ;  and 
all  our  hopes  and  aspirations  for  the  future  are  re 
stricted  to  ourselves,  others  participating  therein  only 
in  an  incidental  and  indirect  way.  From  this  narrow 
view  we  may  be  justly  startled  by  a  right  sense  of 
our  obligations  to  the  body  of  which  we  constitute  a 
part,  and,  by  a  philosophical  examination  of  our  true 
position,  learn  how  great  a  deception  we  are  practicing 
upon  ourselves;  that  we  have  not  been  introduced 
here  and  do  not  continue  here  for  our  own  personal 
sake,  but  that  we  may  share  in  the  development  and 
accomplishment  of  a  result  of  a  far  higher  order.  In 
this  the  part  we  have  to  play  may  be,  in  one  sense, 
insignificant  and  transient,  but,  in  a  truer  sense,  it  is 
important  and  enduring. 


THE  REPUBLIC.  263 

We  may  now  apply  the  general  principles  indicated 
on  the  preceding  pages  to  the  special  case  of  America. 

One  of  the  greatest  of  the  Greek  philosophers, 
Plato,  held  that  in  a  political  sense  men  are  to  be 
considered,  not  as  men,  but  as  elements  of  the  state ; 
thus  carrying  to  its  extreme  consequence  the  idea  of 
that  public  relation  just  referred  to.  In  America,  the 
principle  of  individual  independence  being  thorough 
ly  admitted,  that  independence  can  only  be  secured 
by  political  organization ;  and  hence,  the  Platonic  idea 
being  accepted,  individuals  must  be  considered  as  ex 
isting  for  the  state.  To  it  they  owe  whatever  they 
have,  even  life. 

The  fabric  of  the  Republic  arose  from  the  sponta 
neous  coalescence  of  such  elements.  The  first  immi 
grants  necessarily  maintained  purely  democratic  rela 
tions,  with  only  such  subordination  as  their  existing 
needs  required.  When,  in  the  course  of  time,  colon} 
began  to  establish  connections  with  colony,  the  prin 
ciple  of  equality  was  never  for  a  moment  forgotten. 
From  the  union  of  individuals  towns  arose ;  from  the 
union  of  towns,  states ;  from  the  union  of  states,  the 
Republic.  This  coalescence  of  individuals  w^as  and  is 
still  greatly  facilitated  by  a  certain  sameness  of  hab 
its  among  all  classes,  arising  from  their  issuing  from 
a  common  origin.  Temporary  differences  of  wealth 
are  of  little  moment :  the  poor  of  to-day  may  be  the 
rich  of  to-morrow. 


264  THE  REPUBLIC. 

The  modes  of  life  of  various  classes  being  more 
similar  than  in  Europe,  individuals  fall  more  readily 
into  place,  and  more  easily  assume  a  fitting  associa 
tion  with  one  another.  From  this  arises  that  senti 
ment  of  equality  which  curbs  and  checks  the  senti 
ment  of  individual  independence. 

The  Republic  may  therefore  be  regarded  as  a  re 
strained  association  of  free  individuals,  voluntarily 
surrendering  a  part  of  their  personal  independence 
for  the  common  good,  yet  all  the  time  conscious  and 
jealous  of  that  surrender.  They  have  bartered  a  por 
tion  of  their  liberty  for  security.  Labor  is  its  essen 
tial  basis.  In  America,  every  'one,  even  though  he 
may  be  rich,  must  have  some  ostensible  occupation. 
A  healthy  public  sentiment  makes  it  disreputable  to 
be  idle. 

Liberty,  therefore,  is  always,  if  such  a  paradox  ma}' 
be  excused,  liberty  under  restraint.  It  appertains  not 
to  the  position  an  individual  occupies,  it  is  inherent 
in  humanity. 

Elsewhere  nations  are  governed  too  much ;  here  no 
restraint  is  admissible  beyond  that  necessary  for  the 
well-being  and  life  of  the  body  politic.  But  in  that 
maxim  much  is  embraced.  Coercion,  more  energetic 
and  more  formidable  than  that  ever  felt  in  the  most 
absolute  monarchies,  becomes  justifiable,  if  necessary 
to  preserve  the  national  life.  The  individual  must  not 
for  an  instant  stand  in  the  way  of  the  public  good. 


CONSTRUCTIVE  DEMOCRACY.  265 

There  are  singular  advantages  arising  from  a  per 
sonal  acknowledgment  of  this  force  of  public  author 
ity,  and  of  the  inevitable  direction  its  action  will  take. 
In  foreign  countries  there  is  no  definitely  visible  path 
in  which  it  is  clear  that  the  nation  will  advance  ;  here 
every  one  sees  plainly  what  the  course  of  progress 
must  inevitably  be.  The  popular  phrase,  "  manifest 
destiny,"  marks  out  this  recognition.  There  hence 
arises  a  concert  of  action,  which  adds  prodigiously  to 
the  public  power.  The  momentum  of  the  whole  pop 
ulation  is  felt  in  a  definite  direction. 

Placed  in  such  circumstances,  a  democracy  will  ex 
hibit  an  instinct  of  cohesion  in  all  its  parts.  Herein 
is  the  explanation  of  the  remark  so  often  made  by 
observing  statesmen  respecting  the  essential  difference 
between  democracies  in  Europe  and  America — that 
the  former  are  destructive,  the  latter  constructive. 

This  constructiveness  is  strikingly  seen  in  new-set 
tled  American  states.  Where,  but  a  short  time  be 
fore,  there  was  an  untrodden  wilderness,  population  be 
gan  to  converge — a  village  formed.  In  an  incredibly 
short  time,  organization  of  the  infant  community  might 
be  observed ;  its  outward  signs,  the  school-house,  the 
town-hall,  the  church,  the  newspaper.  These  differ 
entiations  from  the  growing  body  spontaneously  is 
sued  from  the  people ;  they  required  no  stimulus  from 
above.  The  village  rapidly  grew  into  a  town.  All 
round  it,  in  precisely  like  manner,  other  towns  were 


266  SENSITIVENESS  OF  A  DEMOCRACY. 

emerging.  The  instinct  of  cohesion  I  have  referred  to 
combined  them  together;  an  organized  territory,  a 
state,  is  the  result.  Constructive  affinity  still  contin 
ues  to  be  manifested,  and  the  new  state  merges  into 
and  becomes  an  acknowledged  part  of  the  Republic. 
It  loses  forever,  if  indeed  it  ever  possessed,  the  attri 
bute  of  independent  sovereignty. 

Throughout  this  process  of  events  self-government 
is  perpetually  manifest.  Each  individual  bears  a  con 
scious  share  in  each  of  the  stages  of  procedure  and  in 
the  final  result.  Hence  arises  a  property  of  such  a 
democracy  unfortunately  not  understood  in  Europe. 
In  monarchical  countries  war  and  peace  are  easily 
made.  The  people  are  rarely  penetrated  by  a  just 
appreciation  of  the  points  in  dispute.  The  conflicting 
authorities,  sovereigns  or  royal  houses,  compose  their 
quarrel ;  the  community  acquiesce?. 

Not  so  in  a  self-conscious  democracy.  A  public 
injury,  perpetrated  by  a  foreign  power,  is  at  once 
accepted  by  each  individual  as  his  personal  affair. 
When  the  English  government  conceded  belligerent 
rights  to  the  insurgent  states,  there  was  not  an  Amer 
ican  who  did  not  personally  appropriate  the  offense. 
Such  a  sensitiveness  is  often  imputed,  by  those  who 
have  not  considered  the  peculiarities  of  democratic 
life,  to  the  youth  of  the  nation  or  to  other  transitory 
causes.  It  arises,  however,  from  a  very  different,  and, 
it  may  be  added,  a  far  more  dangerous  condition.  A 


CENTRALIZATION  AND  SELF-GOVERNMENT.  267 

course  that  might  be  pursued  with  impunity  by  one 
royal  house  toward  another,  can  not  wisely  be  pur 
sued  toward  a  self-conscious  democracy ;  for  it  has  a 
retentive  memory,  and  is,  in  virtue  of  its  very  consti 
tution,  unforgiving. 

The  instinct  of  self-government,  so  characteristic  of 
the  American  democracy,  thus  leads  to  the  formation 
of  villages,  towns,  counties,  territories,  states  —  nay, 
even  to  the  expansion  of  the  Republic  itself.  So  far 
from  centralization  and  self-government  standing  in 
opposition  to  each  other,  as  some  authors  have  sup 
posed,  the  former  necessarily  issues  out  of  the  latter. 
Self-government,  instead  of  conveying  the  idea  of  ab 
solute  freedom,  conveys,  in  reality,  the  idea  of  re 
straint — restraint  spontaneously  imposed.  If,  as  must 
be  the  case  in  self-conscious  communities,  that  re 
straint  is  organized  by  those  who  are  intending  to 
submit  to  its  rule,  centralization  is  the  necessary  re 
sult. 

Moreover,  the  instinct  of  self-government  implies 
an  instinct  for  enlightenment — an  insatiable  thirst 
for  information.  This  is  recognized  in  all  directions 
in  America.  It  satisfies  itself  by  the  creation  of 
great  educational  establishments,  and  descends  even 
to  amusing  details.  The  Yankee  converses  in  ques 
tions. 

Every  one  is  penetrated  with  the  conviction  that 
for  social  advancement  to  pursue  the  right  direction, 


268    EUROPEAN  GOVERNMENT  THROUGH  MORALS. 

and  to  he  pressed  forward  at  the  highest  speed,  it 
must  be  controlled  by  intelligence.  Hence  the  pub 
lic  prosperity  is  considered  to  depend  on  education. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  is  a  very  high  and 
noble  conception.  It  establishes  an  intrinsic  differ 
ence  between  the  people  of  Europe  and  the  people  of 
America. 

In  Europe  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  govern 
communities  through  their  morals  alone.  The  pres 
ent  state  of  that  continent,  at  the  close  of  so  many 
centuries,  shows  how  great  the  failure  has  been.  In 
America,  on  the  contrary,  the  attempt  is  to  govern 
through  intelligence.  It  will  succeed. 

From  the  American  principle,  it  follows  that  who 
ever  seeks  the  improvement  of  his  fellow-men,  the  en 
nobling  of  the  community  among  whom  he  lives,  or 
the  true  glory  of  the  nation,  can  best  accomplish  his 
purpose  by  spreading  forth  the  light  of  knowledge, 
and  strengthening  and  developing  the  public  under 
standing. 

For  more  than  a  thousand  years  the  moral  system 
has  been  tried  in  Europe.  Its  agent,  the  ecclesiastic, 
was  animated  by  intentions  that  were  good,  by  per 
severance  unwearied,  by  a  vigorous  energy.  The  fail 
ure  is  attributable,  not  to  shortcomings  in  him,  but  to 
intrinsic  defects  in  his  method;  though  on  that  con 
tinent,  in  a  very  imperfect  manner,  in  later  times  the 
other  method  has  spontaneously  and  with  much  re- 


AMERICAN  GOVERNMENT  THROUGH  INTELLECT.      269 

sistance  made  itself  felt ;  a  wonderful  result  is  begin 
ning  to  be  apparent.  The  apprehension  entertained 
by  many  good  men  in  former  times,  that  if  the  mind 
be  instructed  the  morals  may  be  injured,  has  proved 
to  be  unfounded.  Men  are  better  in  proportion  as 
they  are  wiser.  In  whatever  direction  we  look,  we 
see  the  improvement.  The  physical  man  is  more 
powerful,  the  intellectual  man  more  perfect,  the  moral 
man  more  pure.  For  the  poor,  in  the  midst  of  all  this 
social  activity,  this  business  energy,  charity  is  none 
the  less  overflowing ;  for  him  who  wishes  to  improve 
his  life  there  is  certain  to  be  encouragement. 

Whoever  in  America  desires  to  better  his  fellow- 
men  must  act  by  influencing  their  intellect.  If  he 
wishes  to  see  no  idle  man  and  no  poor  man  in  the 
land,  he  must  take  care  that  there  shall  be  no  igno- 
jant  man.  Ignorance  is  not,  as  in  the  old  times  they 
used  to  say,  the  mother  of  devotion ;  she  is  the.  moth 
er  of  superstition  and  misery. 

If  we  wish  to  know  how  we  may  best  clear  from 
this  continent  the  superabundant  forests  that  encum 
ber  it — how  we  may  best  lay  the  iron  rail  and  put 
the  locomotive  upon  it  —  how  wre  may  most  prof 
itably  dig  the  abounding  metals  from  their  veins — 
how  we  may  instantaneously  communicate  with  our 
most  distant  towns — how  we  may  cover  the  ocean 
with  our  ships — how  we  may  produce  a  sober,  indus 
trious,  healthy,  moral  population,  we  shall  find  our 


270  SOCIAL  POSITION  OF  WOMEN. 

answer  in  providing  universal  instruction.  That  spon 
taneously  provides  occupation.  The  morality  of  a  na 
tion  is  the  aggregate  of  the  morality  of  individuals. 

A  lazy  man  is  necessarily  a  had  man;  an  idle  is  nee- 

t/  «/ 

essarily  a  demoralized  population. 

In  such  provisions  for  the  rising  generations  there 
is  a  special  interest  which  ought  never  to  be  over 
looked.  On  many  occasions  social  requirements  press 
with  melancholy  severity  on  the  female  sex.  Wom 
en  can  not  engage  in  the  rough  conflicts  of  life.  Few 
are  the  occupations  to  which  they  can  with  propriety 
turn,  and  even  in  those  few,  to  the  disgrace  of  men 
be  it  said,  they  are  jostled,  and  crushed,  and  crowded 
out.  Yet  often  the  friendless  woman  has  duties  to 
perform  for  herself  and  those  dependent  on  her  of  the 
highest  kind.  Society  inexorably  binds  her  with  all 
its  rules  and  usages,  yet  society  too  often  yields  her 
but  a  feeble  help.  No  more  is  wanted  than  freedom 
for  her  hands,  no  more  than  opportunity,  yet  how  oft 
en  is 'that  freedom,  that  opportunity  denied  !  How 
many  of  the  fearful  evils  of  great  cities  may  be  direct 
ly  traced  to  the  compulsory,  the  profitless  inaction  of 
young  women ! 

I  repeat  again  the  great  truth,  that  the  only  meth 
od  of  ameliorating  the  condition  of  men  is  by  acting 
on  their  intelligence ;  even  their  morals  must  be 
guided  by  their  understanding.  This  principle  has 
been  carried  into  practical  effect  by  a  race  whom  we 


CHINESE  MODE  OF  GOVERNMENT.  271 

affect  to  despise.  Ages  ago,  in  China,  they  had  pass 
ed  through  the  various  experiments  which  the  West 
ern  nations  are  now  so  sedulously  trying;  and  ages 
ago  they  came  to  the  conclusion  that  government,  to 
be  effectual,  satisfactory,  permanent,  must  operate 
through  the  public  intelligence.  In  that  they  follow 
nature.  In  our  supercilious  conceit  we  laugh  at  the 
Chinese ;  his  bodily  formation  and  grotesque  manners 
are  topics  of  merriment  to  us.  We  say  he  opens  his 
eyes  vertically,  like  a  pair  of  folding  doors,  our  own 
opening  horizontally,  as  properly  fixed  windows  ought 
to  do.  We  exult  in  the  glory  of  a  luxuriant  beard 
spread  broadly  over  the  breast,  and  ridicule  him  who, 
having  none,  ties  up  his  long  hair  into  a  tail,  and  lets 
it  hang  down  his  back.  But  the  wisdom  of  a  man 
does  not  depend  on  these  decorations  being  either  in 
front  or  behind.  If  we,  knowing  very  imperfectly  the 
ideas  of  the  old  man  of  the  Mongols,  irreverently  set 
him  down  as  a  superannuated  dotard,  he,  in  an  equal 
ly  imperfect  way,  learning  of  our  proceedings  in  state 
craft  and  our  anarchy  of  creeds,  regards  us  as  "  out 
side  barbarians,"  and,  judging  from  the  rude  violence 
with  which  we  seek  to  make  him  recognize  our  ac 
quaintance,  as  "  red-headed  devils." 

But  this  supremely  solemn  old  man  has  done  some 
thing  that  we  can  not  help  seeing,  no  matter  in  what 
way  we  open  our  eyes.  He  has  found  out  the  means 
by  which  more  than  three  hundred  millions  of  men 


272  CHINESE  MODE  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

—more  than  ten  times  the  population  of  the  United 
States — more  than  one  third  of  the  human  race,  have 
been  for  ages  kept  in  happiness,  prosperity,  and  peace. 
Long  ago  he  had  accomplished  the  thing  which  we, 
on  a  smaller  scale,  are  attempting.  If  we  could  sur 
prise  him  into  a  moment's  relaxation  from  the  amen 
ities  of  exquisite  courteousness  and  from  the  artifices 
of  infinite  dissimulation — if  we  could  coax  from  him 
his  secret,  this  is  what  he  would  say :  "  Educate  ev 
ery  body.  In  every  child  that  is  born,  the  state, 
as  well  as  the  parent,  has  a  right.  I  compel  all  to 
go  to  school.  I  push  forward  the  brightest  of  the 
children  into  academies,  and  from  thence  the  boys 
who  are  distinguished  above  their  fellow-boys  by  su 
perior  endowments  I  send  to  the  college.  From  the 
new  conflict  of  mind  that  there  ensues  I  select  the  vic 
tors,  and,  transplanting  them  to  active  life,  intrust  to 
them  the  superintendence  of  districts.  Those  who 
have  displayed  capacity  on  that  scale  I  promote  to 
the  government  of  provinces.  They  who  approve 
themselves  in  the  ordeal  of  that  greater  trial  are  re 
lied  upon  as  the  counselors  and  guides  of  the  Impe 
rial  authority  at  last.  In  China  our  ancestors  organ 
ized  the  National  Intellect ;  we  honor  learning  above 
all  other  things.  The  road  to  greatness  is  open  to 
him  who  has  capacity  to  wralk  in  it.  Our  educated 
are  not  our  dangerous  classes,  but  firm  supporters  of 
the  state ;  and  the  result  is,  that  we  are  the  most  nu- 


THE  SCHOOL,  THE  PULPIT,  THE  PKESS.  273 

merous,  in  our  internal  affairs  the  most  prosperous 
and  the  most  contented  nation  of  the  earth." 

That  is  the  manner  in  which  the  Asiatics  have  re 
solved  the  great  problem  of  statesmanship.  The  de 
tails  might  not  answer  to  our  Western  life,  but  their 
example  and  its  success  may  well  afford  us  a  topic  of 
profound  meditation. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  discuss  formally  the 
question  whether  social  advancement  is  best  secured 
through  moral  or  intellectual  action.  In  America  the 
latter  method  has  been  adopted ;  and  accepting  that 
in  contradistinction  to  the  former,  which,  is  followed 
in  Europe,  I  niay  briefly  allude  to  certain  points  con 
nected  with  the  practical  manner  in  which  it  is  car 
ried  into  effect. 

There  are  three  organs  of  public  instruction — the 
school,  the  pulpit,  the  press. 

As  respects  schools,  the  primary  condition  for  their 
efficiency  is  a  supply  of  well -trained  and  competent 
teachers.  In  former  times  the  education  of  youth  was 
too  often  surrendered  to  persons  who  had  become  su 
perannuated  in  other  pursuits,  or  had  failed  in  them, 
or  had  been  left  in  destitute  circumstances.  But  lit 
tle  heed  was  given  by  parents  or  the  public  to  the 
quality  of  the  information  imparted  in  these  concerns. 
There  was  a  vague  notion,  which,  as  we  shall  see,  still 
unhappily  prevails  as  regards  the  higher  establish 
ments  of  education,  that  the  training  of  the  mind  is 

S 


274  PRINCIPLE  OF  EDUCATION. 

of  more  importance  than  the  nature,  of  the  information 
imparted  to  it. 

Normal  schools  for  the  preparation  of  teachers  must 
necessarily  be  an  essential  part  of  any  well-ordered 
public  school  system.  In  these,  young  persons  of 
both  sexes  may  be  prepared  for  assuming  the  duties 
of  teaching.  The  rule  under  which  they  should  not 
only  be  taught,  but  likewise  subsequently  teach — the 
rule  that  should  be  made  to  apply  in  every  establish 
ment,  from  the  primary  school  to  the  university,  is 
this — Education  should  represent  the  existing  state 
of  knowledge* 

But  in  America  this  golden  rule  is  disregarded,  es 
pecially  in  the  case  of  the  higher  establishments. 
What  is  termed  classical  learning  arrogates  to  itself 
a  space  that  excludes  much  more  important  things. 
It  finds  means  to  appropriate,  practically,  all  collegiate 
honors.  This  evil  has  arisen  from  the  circumstance 
that  our  system  was  imported  from  England.  It  is  a 
remnant  of  the  tone  of  thought  of  that  country  in  the 
sixteenth  century;  meritorious  enough  and  justifiable 
enough  in  that  day,  but  obsolete  in  this.  The  vague 
impression  to  which  I  have  above  referred,  that  such 
pursuits  impart  a  training  to  the  mind,  has  long  sus 
tained  this  inappropriate  course.  It  also  finds  an  ex 
cuse  in  its  alleged  power  of  communicating  the  wis 
dom  of  past  ages.  The  grand  depositories  of  human 
knowledge  are  not  the  ancient,  but  the  modern 


CLASSICAL  INSTRUCTION.  275 

% 

tongues.  Few,  if  any,  are  the  facts  worth  knowing 
that  are  te  be  exclusively  obtained  by  a  knowledge 
of  Latin  and  Greek ;  and  as  to  mental  discipline,  it 
might  reasonably  be  inquired  how  much  a  youth  will 
secure  by  translating  daily  a  few  good  sentences  of 
Latin  and  Greek  into  bad  and  broken  English.  So 
far  as  a  preparation  is  required  for  the  subsequent 
struggles  and  conflicts  of  life — for  discerning  the  in 
tentions  and  meeting  the  rivalries  of  competitors — for 
skill  to  design  movements  and  carry  them  out  with 
success — for  cultivating  a  clearness  of  perception  into 
the  character  and  motives  of  others,  and  for  impart 
ing  a  decision  to  our  own  actions — so  far  as  these 
things  are  concerned,  an  ingenious  man  would  have 
no  difficulty  in  maintaining  the  amusing  affirmation 
that  more  might  be  gained  from  a  mastery  of  the 
game  of  chess  than  by  translating  all  the  Greek  and 
Latin  authors  in  the  world. 

The  remarks  I  am  thus  making  respecting  the  im 
perfections  of  general  education  apply,  I  think,  very 
forcibly  to  the  education  of  the  clergy.  The  school, 
the  pulpit,  the  press,  being  the  three  organs  of  public 
instruction,  a  right  preparation  of  the  clergy  for  their 
duty  is  of  as  much  moment  as  a  right  preparation 
of  teachers  and  journalists. 

In  the  education  of  the  American  clergyman  the 
classical  element  very  largely  predominates.  Indeed, 
it  may  with  truth  be  affirmed  that  it  is  to  no  incon-. 


276  EDUCATION  OF  THE  CLERGY. 

siderable  degree  for  the  sake  of  securing  such  a  result 
that  that  element  is  so  carefully  fostered  in  the  col 
leges,  from  which  it  would  otherwise  have  long  ago 
been  eliminated,  or,  at  all  events,  greatly  reduced  in 
prominence.  The  strength  of  this  wisl}  is  manifested 
by  the  munificent  endowments  with  which  many 
pious  and  patriotic  men  have  sustained  classical 
professorships.  Perhaps,  however,  they  do  not  suffi 
ciently  reflect  that  the  position  and f  requirements  of 
the  clergy  have  of  late  years  very  much  changed. 
Preaching  must  answer  to  the  mode  of  thinking  of 
the  congregations.  But  now  literary  authority  has 
to  a  very  great  degree  lost  its  force.  Elucidations  of 
Scripture  and  the  defense  of  doctrine,  in  modern  times, 
require  modern  modes  of  treatment. 

But,  moreover,  in  one  important  respect  is  the  edu 
cation  of  the  clergy  defective.  Unhappily,  and,  it  may 
be  added,  unnecessarily,  there  has  arisen,  as  was  re 
lated  in  the  last  chapter,  an  apparent  antagonism  be 
tween  Theology  and  Science.  Tradition  has  been 
made  to  confront  Discovery.  Now,  the  discussion 
and  correct  appreciation  of  any  new  scientific  fact  re 
quires  a  special  training,  a  special  stock  of  knowl 
edge.  That  training,  that  knowledge,  are  not  to  be 
had  in  theological  seminaries.  The  clergyman  is  thus 
constrained  to  view  with  jealous  distrust  the  rapid 
advancement  of  practical  knowledge.  In  the  case  of 
any  new  fact,  his  inquiry  necessarily  is,  not  whether  it 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  CLERGY.          277 

is  absolutely  true,  but  whether  it  is  in  accordance  with 
conceptions  he  considers  established.  The  result  of 
this  condition  of  things  is,  that  many  of  the  most  im 
portant,  the  most  powerful  and  exact  branches  of  hu 
man  knowledge,  have  been  forced  into  a  position  they 
never  would  have  voluntarily  assumed,  and  have  been 
compelled  to  put  themselves  on  their  defense — As 
tronomy,  in  the  case  of  the  globular  form  of  the 
earth,  and  its  position  as  a  subordinate  planet ;  Geol 
ogy,  as  respects  its  vast  antiquity ;  Zoology,  on  the 
problem  of  the  origin  of  species ;  Chemistry,  on  the 
unchangeability  of  matter  and  the  indestructibility  of 
force. 

In  thus  criticising  education  in  the  higher  Ameri 
can  establishments,  I  present  views  that  have  forced 
themselves  on  my  attention  in  an  experience  of  thirty 
years,  and  on  a  very  extensive  scale.  Not  unfrequent- 
ly  I  have  superintended  the  instruction,  professional 
or  otherwise,  of  nearly  four  hundred  young  men  in 
the  course  of  a  single  year,  and  have  had  unusual  op 
portunities  of  observing  their  subsequent  course  of 
life. 

The  education  of  the  clergy,  I  think,  is  not  equal 
to  that  of  physicians  or  lawyers.  The  provisions  are 
sufficient,  and  the  time  is  sufficient,  but  the  direction 
is  faulty.  In  the  study  of  medicine  every  thing  is 
done  to  impart  to  the  pupil  a  knowledge  of  the  pres 
ent  state  of  the  subjects  or  sciences  with  which  he  is 


278  EDUCATION  OF  THE  CLERGY. 

concerned.  The  profession  watches  with  a  jealous 
eye  its  colleges,  exposing  without  hesitation  any 
shortcomings  it  detects.  It  will  not  be  satisfied  with 
erudition,  it  insists  on  knowledge. 

But  such  modernized  instruction  is  actually  less 
necessary  in  the  life  of  a  physician  than  it  is  in  the 
life  of  a  clergyman.  The  former  pursues  his  daily 
course  in  an  unobtrusive  way ;  the  latter  is  compelled 
by  his  position  to  publicity.  The  congregations  w^hom 
he  must  meet  each  Sabbath  day,  and,  indeed,  perhaps 
more  frequently,  are  often  too  prone  to  substitute  the 
right  of  criticism  for  a  sentiment  of  simple  devotion. 
Very  few  among  them  can  appreciate  the  monotonous, 
the  wearing  strain  of  compulsory  mental  labor — labor 
that  at  a  given  hour  must  with  punctuality  be  per 
formed.  On  topics  that  have  been  thought  about, 
and  written  about,  and  preached  about  for  nearly 
twenty  centuries,  they  are  importunately  and  unrea 
sonably  .demanding  something  new. 

In  that  ordeal  the  clergyman  spends  his  existence. 
To  maintain  the  respect  that  is  his  due,  there  are  but 
two  things  on  which  he  can  rely — purity  of  life  and 
knowledge.  Men  unconsciously  submit  to  the  guid 
ance  of  what  they  discern  to  be  superior  intelligence. 
Here  comes  into  disastrous  operation  the  defective 
organization  of  the  theological  seminaries.  Content 
with  such  a  knowledge  of  nature  as  might  have  an 
swered  a  century  ago,  the  imposing  and  ever-increas- 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  CLERGY.  279 

ing  body  of  modern  science  they  decline.  And  yet  it 
is  that  science  and  its  practical  applications  which  are 
now  guiding  the  destinies  of  civilization. 

In  my  History  of  the  Intellectual  Development  of 
Europe  I  have  had  occasion  to  consider  the  conse 
quences  of  the  Reformation,  and  may  perhaps  be  ex 
cused  the  following  quotation :  "  America,  in  which, 
of  all  countries,  the  Reformation  at  the  present  mo 
ment  has  farthest  advanced,  should  offer  to  thought 
ful  men  much  encouragement.  Its  cities  are  filled 
with  churches  built  by  voluntary  gifts;  its  clergy 
are  voluntarily  sustained,  and  are  in  all  directions 
engaged  in  enterprises  of  piety,  education,  mercy. 
What  a  difference  between  their  private  life  and  that 
of  ecclesiastics  before  the  Reformation !  Not,  as  in 
the  old  times,  does  the  layman  look  upon  them  as  the 
cormorants  and  curse  of  society.  They  are  his  faith 
ful  advisers,  his  honored  friends,  under  whose  sugges 
tion  and  supervision  are  instituted  educational  estab 
lishments,  colleges,  hospitals,  whatever  can  be  of  ben 
efit  to  men  in  this  life,  or  secure  for  them  happiness 
in  the  life  to  come." 

No  one  can  study  the  progress  "bf  modern  civiliza 
tion  without  being  continually  reminded  of  the  great, 
it  might  be  sai'd,  the  mortal  mistake  committed  by 
the  Roman  Church.  Had  it  put  itself  forth  as  the 
promoter  and  protector  of  science,  it  would  at  this 
day  have  exerted  an  unquestioned  dominion  all  over 


280  MONITION  FROM  THP:  ROMAN  CHURCH. 

Europe.  Instead  of  being  the  stumbling  -  block,  it 
would  have  been  the  animating  agent  of  human  ad 
vancement.  It  shut  the  Bible  only  to  have  it  opened 
forcibly  by  the  Reformation ;  it  shut  the  book  of  Na 
ture,  but  has  found  it  impossible  to  keep  it  closed. 
How  different  the  result,  had  it  abandoned  the  obso 
lete  absurdities  of  Patristicism,  and  become  imbued 
with  the  spirit  of  true  Philosophy — had  it  lifted  it 
self  to  a  comprehension  of  the  awful  magnificence  of 
the  heavens  above  and  the  glories  of  the  earth  be 
neath — had  it  appreciated  the  immeasurable  vastness 
of  the  universe,  its  infinite  multitude  of  worlds,  its  in 
conceivable  past  duration  !  How  different,  if  in  place 
of  forever  looking  backward,  it  had  only  looked  for 
ward — bowing  itself  down  in  a  world  of  life  and  light, 
instead  of  worshiping,  in  the  charnel-house  of  antiqui 
ty,  the  skeletons  of  twenty  centuries !  How  different, 
had  it  hailed  with  transport  the  discoveries  and  in 
ventions  of  human  genius,  instead  of  scowling  upon 
them  with  a  malignant  and  baleful  eye !  How  dif 
ferent,  had  it  canonized  the  great  men  who  have  been 
the  interpreters  of  Nature,  instead  of  anathematizing 
them  as  Atheists ! ' 

In  our  national  development  it  is  for  the  American 
clergy  to  shun  that  great,  that  fatal  mistake.  It  is 
for  them  to  remember  that  the  Reformation  remains 
only  half  completed,  until  to  the  free  reading  of  the 
Book  of  God  there  is  added  the  free  reading  of  the 


THE  PRESS.  281 

Book  of  Nature.  It  is  for  them  to  remember  that 
there  are  two  volumes  of  Revelation — the  Word  and 
the  Works ;  and  that  it  is  the  indefeasible  right  of 
every  man  to  study  and  interpret  them  both,  accord 
ing  to  the  light  given  him,  without  molestation  or 
punishment. 

Since  the  invention  of  printing,  the  power  of  the 
pulpit  has  been  subordinated  to  the  power  of  the 
press,  which  is  continually  gathering  force  from  the 
increasing  diffusion  of  education.  In  America  the 
newspaper  has  become  a  necessary  of  life.  It  makes 
its  successful  appearance  in  villages  of  which  the 
population  would  be  considered,  in  other  countries, 
inadequate  for  its  support.  Cheap  reading  is  to  be 
had  every  where.  The  consequence  is,  that  all  sides 
of  a  question  are  apt  to  be  read.  It  is  affirmed  that 
the  consumption  of  paper  in  America,  for  printing 
and  writing)  is  more  than  that  of  England  and  France 
put  together. 

By  these  various  agencies  rays  of  enlightenment 
pervade  the  land ;  the  general  character  of  the  people 
undergoing  a  continual  improvement,  manifested  in 
the  acquisition  of  a  breadth  of  view  and  vigor  of  ac 
tion.  It  is  both  important  and,  interesting  to  com 
pare  communities  whose  improvement  has  been  at 
tempted  on  the  moral  principle  alone,  with  the  Amer 
ican  community,  in  which  dependence  is  had  on  the 
intellectual.  The  people  who  approach  most  nearly 


282      MORAL  AND  INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION. 

to  us,  so  ^r  as  origin  and  habits  of  life  are  concerned, 
are  the  English.  For  many  centuries  their  social 
amelioration  and  political  advancement  were  depend 
ent  on  an  appeal  to  morals.  During  the  greater  por 
tion  of  that  time  the  country  had  been  Catholic,  but 
then  it  had  also  been  reformed — ever,  as  it  will  al 
ways  be,  religious.  In  my  History  of  the  Intellectual 
Development  of  Europe,  Chapter  XXI.,  I  have  endeav 
ored  to  estimate  impartially  the  progress  that  had 
been  made  under  that  system,  and  to  give  a  picture 
9f  the  social  state  attained  by  its  guidance.  I  think 
that  any  one  who  will  turn  to  those  pages  will  come 
to  the  conclusion  that,  even  when  thus  persevering]}' 
applied  for  many  ages,  under  auspices  of  the  most  fa 
vorable  and  varied  kind,  upon  a  people  naturally  de 
sirous  of  improvement,  the  moral  method  fails  to  yield 
the  results  popularly  imputed  to  it. 

No  social  problem  can  be  presented  to  our  contem 
plation  of  higher  importance.  Shall  we  decide  in  fa 
vor  of  the  moral  or  the  intellectual  method  ?  the  En 
glish  or  the  American  system  ?  For  the  sake  of  en 
abling  the  reader  to  judge,  I  will  present  a  brief  ab 
stract  of  some  of  the  facts  set  forth  in  the  chapter  to 
which  I  have  alluded.  They  are  derived  altogether 
from  English  sources,  and  to  a  considerable  extent 
from  the  works  of  Lord  Macaulay  and  Mr.  Froude. 

At  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  London 
was  the  most  populous  capital  in  Europe ;  yet  it  was 


ENGLAND  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.     283 

dirty,  ill  built,  without  sanitary  provisions.  The 
deaths  were  one  in  twenty-three  each  year ;  now,  in 
a  much  more  crowded  population,  they  are  not  one 
in  forty.  Much  of  the  country  was  heath,  swamp, 
warren.  Almost  within  sight  of  the  city  there  was 
a  tract  twenty-five  miles  round  nearly  in  a  state  of 
nature ;  there  were  but  three  houses  upon  it.  Wild 
animals  roamed  in  all  directions. 

Xothiug  more  strikingly  shows  the  social  condition 
than  the  provisions  for  locomotion.  In  the  rainy  sea 
sons  the  roads  were  all  but  impassable,  justifying  the 
epithet  so  often  applied  to  them  of  being  in  a  horrible 
state.  Through  such  gullies,  half  filled  with  mud,  car 
riages  were  dragged,  often  by  oxen,  or,  when  horses 
wrere  used,  it  was  as  much  a  matter  of  necessity  as,  in 
the  city,  a  matter  of  display,  to  drive  half  a  dozen  of 
them.  If  the  country  was  open,  the  track  of  the  road 
was  easily  mistaken :  it  wras  no  uncommon  thing  for 
persons  to  lose  their  way,  and  have  to  spend  the  night 
out  in  the  open  air.  Between  places  of  considerable 
importance  the  roads  were  very  little  known;  and 
such  was  the  difficulty  for  wheeled  carriages,  that  a 
principal  mode  of  transport  was  by  pack-horses,  of 
which  the  passengers  took  advantage,  stowing  them 
selves  away  between  the  packs.  We  shall  probably 
not  dissent  from-  their  complaint  that  this  method  of 
traveling  was  hot  in  summer  and  cold  in  winter.  The 
usual  charge  for  freight  was  thirty  cents  a  ton  pe:1 


284    ENGLAND  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

mile.  Toward  the  close  of  the  century,  what  were 
termed  flying  coaches  were  established:  they  could 
move  at  the  rate  of  from  thirty  to  fifty  miles  a  day. 
Many  persons  thought  the  risk  so  great  that  it  was  a 
tempting  of  Providence  to  go  in  them.  ,  The  mail-bag 
was  carried  on  horseback  at  about  five  miles  an  hour. 
A  penny -post  had  been  established  in  the  city,  but 
with  much  difficulty;  for  many  long-headed  men, 
who  knew  very  well  what  they  were  saying,  had  de 
nounced  it  as  an  insidious  "  Popish  contrivance." 

Only  a  few  years  before  this  period  Parliament  had 
resolved  that  "  all  pictures  in  the  royal  collection 
which  contained  representations  of  Jesus  or  the  Vir 
gin  Mother  should  be  burned.  Greek  statues  were 
delivered  over  to  Puritan  stone-masons  to  be  made 
decent."  A  little  earlier,  Lewis  Muggleton  had  given 
himself  out  as  the  last  and  greatest  of  the  prophets, 
having  power  to  save  or  damn  whom  he  pleased.  It 
had  been  revealed  to  him  that  God  is  only  six  feet 
high,  and  the  sun  only  four  miles  off.  The  country 
beyond  the  Trent  was  still  in  a  state  of  barbarism, 
and  near  the  sources  of  the  Tyne  there  were  peo 
ple  scarcely  less  savage  than  American  Indians,  their 
"  half-naked  women  chanting  a  wild  measure,  while 
the  men,  with  brandished  dirks,  danced  a  war-dance." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  there 
were  thirty -four  counties  without  a  printer.  The 
only  press  in  England  north  of  the  Trent  was  at 


ENGLAND  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.    285 

York.  As  to  private  libraries,  there  were  none  de 
serving  the  name.  "An  esquire  passed  for  a  great 
scholar,  if  Hudibras,  Baker's  Chronicle,  Tarleton's 
Jests,  and  the  Seven  Champions  of  Christendom  lay 
in  his  hall  window."  It  might  be  expected  that  the 
women  were  ignorant  enough,  when  very  few  men 
knew  how  to  write  correctly  or  even  intelligibly,  and 
it  had  become  unnecessary  for  clergymen  to  read  the 
Scriptures  in  the  original  tongues. 

Social  discipline  was  very  far  from  being  of  that 
kind  which  we  call  moral.  The  master  whipped  his 
apprentice,  the  pedagogue  his  scholar,  the  husband 
his  wife.  Public  punishments  partook  of  the  general 
brutality.  It  was  a  day  for  the  rabble  when  a  cul 
prit  was  set  in  the  pillory,  to  be  pelted  with  brick 
bats,  rotten  eggs,  and  dead  cats ;  when  women  were 
fastened  by  the  legs  in  the  stocks  at  the  market-place, 
or  a  pilferer  flogged  through  the  town  at  the  cart  tail, 
a  clamor  not  unfrequently  arising  unless  the  lash  were 
laid  on  hard  enough  "  to  make  him  howl."  In  pun 
ishments  of  a  higher  kind  these  whippings  were  per 
fectly  horrible :  thus  Titus  Gates,  after  standing  twice 
in  the  pillory,  was  whipped,  and,  after  an  interval  of 
a  few  days,  whipped  again.  A  virtuoso  in  these  mat 
ters  gives  us  the  incredible  information  that  he  count 
ed  as  many  as  seventeen  hundred  stripes  administered. 
So  far  from  the  community  being  shocked  at  such  an 
exhibition,  they  appeared  to  agree  in  the  sentiment, 


286     ENGLAND  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

that  "  since  liis  face  could  not  be  made  to  blush,  it- 
was  well  enough  to  try  what  could  be  done  with  his 
back."  Such  a  hardening  of  heart  was  in  no  lit 
tle  degree  promoted  by  the  atrocious  punishment  of 
state  offenders ;  thus,  after  the  decapitation  of  Mon- 
trose  and  Argyle,  their  heads  decorated  the  top  of  the 
Tolbooth;  and  gentlemen,  after  the  rising  of  Mon- 
mouth,  were  admonished  to  be  careful  of  their  ways, 
by  hanging  in  chains  to  their  park  gate  the  corpse  of 
a  rebel  to  rot  in  the  air. 

To  a  debased  public  life  private  life  corresponded. 
The  houses  of  the  rural  population  were  huts  covered 
with  straw  thatch ;  their  inmates,  if  able  to  procure 
fresh  meat  once  a  week,  were  considered  to  be  in 
prosperous  circumstances ;  one  half  of  the  families  in 
England  could  hardly  do  that.  Children  of  six  years 
old  were  not  unfrequently  set  to  labor.  The  lord  .of 
the  manor  spent  his  time  in  rustic  pursuits,  was  not 
an  unwilling  associate  of  peddlers  and  drovers,  knew 
how  to  ring  a  pig  or  shoe  a  horse;  his  wife  and  daugh 
ters  "  stitched  and  spun,  brewed  gooseberry  wine,  cured 
marigolds,  and  made  the  crust  for  the  venison  pasty." 
Hospitality  was  displayed  in  immoderate  eating  and 
the  drinking  of  beer,  the  guest  not  being  considered 
as  having  done  justice  to  the  occasion  unless  he  had 
gone  under  the  table.  The  dining-room  was  uncar- 
peted,  but  then  it  was  tinted  with  a  decoction  of  "soot 
and  small  beer."  The  chairs  were  rush-bottomed.  In 


ENGLAND  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.     287 

London  the  houses  were  mostly  of  wood  and  plaster, 
the  streets  filthy  beyond  expression.  After  nightfall 
a  passenger  went  at  his  peril,  for  chamber  windows 
were  opened  and  slop-pails  unceremoniously  emptied 
down.  There  were  no  lamps  in  the  streets  until  Mas 
ter  Fleming  established  his  public  lanterns.  As  a 
necessary  consequence,  there  were  plenty  of  shoplift 
ers,  highwaymen,  and  burglars. 

As  to  the  moral  condition,  it  is  fearfully  expressed 
in  the  statement  that  men  not  unfrequently  were 
willing  to  sacrifice  their  country  for  their  religion. 
Hardly  any  person  died  who  was  not  suspected  to 
have  been  made  away  with  by  poison,  an  indication 
of  the  morality  generally  supposed  to  prevail  among 
the  higher  classes.  If  such  was  the  state  of  society 
in  its  serious  aspect,  it  was  no  better  in  its  lighter. 
We  can  scarcely  credit  the  impurity  and  immodesty 
of  the  theatrical  exhibitions. .  What  is  said  about 
them  would  be  beyond  belief,  if  we  did  not  remem 
ber  that  they  were  the  amusements  of  a  community 
whose  ideas  of  female  modesty  and  female  sentiment 
were  altogether  different  from  ours.  Indecent  jests 
were  put  into  the  mouths  of  lively  actresses,  and  the 
dancing  was  not  altogether  of  a  kind  to  meet  our  ap 
proval.  The  rural  clergy  could  do  but  little  to  with 
stand  this  flood  of  immorality.  Their  social  condition 
for  the  last  hundred  years  had  been  rapidly  declining; 
for,  though  the  Church  possessed  among  her  dignita- 


288     ENGLAND  IX  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CEXTURY. 

ries  great  writers  and  great  preachers,  her  lower  or 
ders,  partly  through  the  political  troubles  that  had 
befallen  the  state,  but  chiefly  in  consequence  of  secta 
rian  bitterness,  had  been  reduced  to  a  truly  menial 
condition.  It  was  the  business  of  the  rich  man's 
chaplain  to  add  dignity  to  the  dinner-table  by  saying 
grace  u  in  full  canonicals,"  but  he  was  also  intended 
to  be  a  butt  for  the  mirth  of  the  company.  *•  The 
young  Levite,"  such  was  the  phrase  then  in  use, 
k-  might  fill  himself  with  the  corned  beef  and  the  car 
rots  ;  but,  as  soon  as  the  tarts  and  cheesecakes  made 
their  appearance,  he  quitted  his  seat  and  stood  aloof 
till  he  was  summoned  to  return  thanks  for  the  re 
past,"  the  daintiest  part  of  which  he  had  not  tasted. 
If  need  arose,  he  could  curry  a  horse,  "  carry  a  parcel 
ten  miles,"  or  "  cast  up  the  farrier's  bill."  The  "  wages" 
of  a  parish  priest  were  at  starvation-point.  The  social 
degradation  of  the  ecclesiastics  is  well  illustrated  by 
an  order  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  that  no  clergyman 
should  presume  to  marry  a  servant-girl  without  the 
consent  of  her  master  or  mistress. 

In  administering  the  law,  whether  in  relation  to 
political  or  religious  offenses,  there  was  an  incredible 
atrocity.  In  London,  the  crazy  old  bridge  over  the 
Thames  was  decorated  with  grinning  and  mouldering 
heads  of  criminals,  under  an  idea  that  these. ghastly 
spectacles  would  fortify  the  common  people  in  their  re 
solves  to  act  according  to  law.  The  toleration  of  the 


ENGLAND  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.     289 

times  may  be  understood  from  a  law  enacted  by  the 
Scotch  Parliament,  May  8, 1685,  that  whoever  preach 
ed  or  heard  in  a  conventicle  should  be  punished  with 
death  and  the  confiscation  of  his  goods.  That  such 
an  infamous  spirit  should  not  content  itself  with  mere 
dead-letter  laws,  there  is  too  much  practical  evidence 
to  permit  any  one  to  doubt.  A  silly  laboring  man, 
who  had  taken  it  into  his  head  that  he  could  not  con 
scientiously  attend  the  Episcopal  worship,  was  seized 
by  a  troop  of  soldiers,  "  rapidly  examined,  convicted 
of  nonconformity,  and  sentenced  to  death  in  the  pres 
ence  of  his  wife,  who  led  one  little  child  by  the  hand, 
and,  it  was  easy  to  see,  was  about  to  give  birth  to  an 
other.  He  was  shot  before  her  face,  the  widow  cry 
ing  out,  in  her  agony,  '  Well,  sirs,  well,  the  day  of 
reckoning  will  come.'"  Shrieking  Scotch  Covenant 
ers  were  submitted  to  torture  by  crushing  their  knees 
flat  in  the  boot.  Women  were  tied  to  stakes  on  the 
sea-sands  and  drowned  by  the  slowly  advancing  tide 
because  they  would  not  attend  Episcopal  worship,  or 
branded  on  their  cheeks  and  then  shipped  to  Ameri 
ca.  Gallant  but  wounded  soldiers  were  hung  in  Scot 
land,  for  fear  they  should  die  before  they  could  be  got 
to  England.  In  the  troubles  connected  with  Mon- 
mouth's  rising,  in  one  county  alone,  Somersetshire, 
two  hundred  and  thirty -three  persons  were  hanged, 
drawn,  and  quartered,  to  say  nothing  of  military  exe 
cutions  ;  for  the  soldiers  amused  themselves  by  hang- 

T 


290     ENGLAND  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

ing  a  culprit  for  each  toast  they  drank,  and  making 
the  drums  and  fifes  play,  as  they  said,  to  his  dancing. 
It  is  needless  to  recall  such  incidents  as  the  ferocity 
of  Kirk's  lambs,  for  such  was  the  name  popularly  giv 
en  to  the  soldiers  of  that  colonel,  in  allusion  to  the 
Paschal  Lamb  they  bore  on  their  flag,  or  to  the  story 
of  Tom  Boilman,  so  nicknamed  from  his  having  been 
compelled  by  those  veterans  to  seethe  the  remains  of 
his  quartered  friends  in  melted  pitch.  Women,  for 
such  idle  words  as  women  are  always  using,  were 
sentenced  to  be  whipped  at  the  cart's  tail  through  ev 
ery  market-town  in  Dorset.  A  lad  named  Tutching 
was  condemned  to  be  flogged  once  a  fortnight  for  sev 
en  years.  Eight  hundred  and  forty-one  human  be 
ings,  judicially  condemned  to  transportation '  to  the 
West  India  Islands,  and  suffering  all  the  horrible 
pains  of  a  slave-ship  in  the  Middle  Passage,  "were 
never  suffered  to  go  on  deck ;"  in  the  holds  below, 
u  all  was  darkness,  stench,  lamentation,  disease,  and 
death."  One  fifth  of  them  were  thrown  overboard  to 
the  sharks  before  they  reached  their  destination,  and 
the  rest  obliged  to  be  fattened  before  they  could  be 
offered  in  the  market  to  the  Jamaica  planters.  The 
court  ladies,  and  even  the  queen  herself,  were  so  ut 
terly  forgetful  of  womanly  mercy  and  common  human 
ity  as  to  join  in  this  infernal  traffic.  That  princess  re 
quested  that  a  hundred  of  the  convicts  should  be  giv 
en  to  her.  "  The  profit  which  she  cleared  on  the  car- 


INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION.  291 

go,  after  making  a  large  allowance  for  those  who  died 
of  hunger  and  fever  during  the  passage,  can  not  be 
estimated  at  less  than  a  thousand  guineas." 

Such  incidents  as  that  last  mentioned  would  be  in 
credible,  if  not  cited  upon  unimpeachable  authority. 
It  is  that  of  Lord  Macaiilay,  in  his  History  of  England. 
The  advocates  of  the  system  of  social  improvement  by 
an  appeal  to  the  moral,  excluding  the  intellectual,  have 
in  this  impartial  representation  of  the  state  of  that 
country,  after  a  persevering  trial  of  hundreds  of  years 

of  that  means,  a  proof  of  the  failure  of  their  well-meant 

* 

but  inadequate  work. 

Why  is  it  that  such -things  are  impossible  now? 
The  answer  promptly  given  to  such  an  inquiry  is, 
that  men  are  more  enlightened.  Exactly  so.  And 
does  not  that  confession  concede  the  principle  I  am 
endeavoring  to  enforce,  that  the  improvement  of  so 
ciety  can  only  be  accomplished  through  the  intel 
lect? 

The  moral  is,  in  its  very  nature,  stationary.  Alone 
it  is  incompetent  to  guide  the  advancement  of  society. 
Social  elevation  can  only  be  accomplished  by  appeal 
ing  to  the  understanding,  and  that  will  influence  the 
heart. 

Herein  is  the  secret  of  the  rapid  development  of 
American  society,  and  the  prodigious  strength  of 
American  political  institutions.  If  education  were 
restricted  to  a  class,  instead  of  being  given  to  all,  the 


292  INTELLECTUAL  EDUCATION. 

dead  weight  of  the  illiterate  masses  would  keep  ev 
ery  thing  in  stagnation. 

Whoever  will  examine  the  social  condition  of  Eu 
rope  from  the  epoch  of  its  conversion  to  the  close  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  will  not  fail  to  perceive  that 
its  torpidity  through  so  many  ages  was  connected 
with  the  false  system  resorted  to  by  the  Italian  au 
thorities.  Rome  utterly  rejected  intellectual  improve 
ment;  she  struck  it  aside  with  an  inexorable,  often 
with  a  bloody  hand.  She  fell  into  the  political  error 
of  expecting  to  accomplish  the  development  of  society 
by  methods  that  were  essentially  inadequate  and  sta 
tionary. 

"Ignorance  is  the  mother  of  Devotion" — of  Super 
stition,  it  should  rather  have  been  said.  There  can 
not  be  found  in  any  country  communities  more  relig 
ious  and  more  enlightened  than  American.  Knowl 
edge  and  morality,  so  far  from  being  incompatible, 
are  intimately  allied.  Whatever  improvement  the 
latter  is  capable  of,  it  must  owe  to  the  advancement 
of  the  former. 

It  is  amazing  what  delusions  and  impostures  held 
an  unquestioned  position  so  long  as  that  erroneous 
system  was  applied.  It  is  amazing  how  they  disap 
peared  when  the  better  system  was  put  in  force. 
The  moonlight  has  now  no  fairies,  the  solitude  no  ge 
nius,  the  darkness  no  ghost,  no  goblin.  There  is  no 
necromancer  who  can  raise  the  dead  from  their  graves, 


EXTINCTION  OF  SUPERSTITION.  293 

—no  one  who  has  sold  his  soul  to  the  devil  and  signed 
the  contract  with  his  blood — no  angry  apparition  to 
rebuke  the  crone  who  has  disquieted  him.  Divina 
tion,  agromancy,  pyromancy,  hydromancy,  cheiroman 
cy,  augury,  interpreting  of  dreams,  oracles,  sorcery,  as 
trology,  are  all  gone.  It  is  three  hundred  and  fifty 
years  since  the  last  sepulchral  lamp  was  found,  and 
that  was  near  Rome.  There  are  no  gorgons,  hydras, 
chimeras,  no  familiars,  no  incubus  or  succubus.  No 
longer  do  captains  buy  of  Lapland  witches  favorable 
winds;  no  longer  do  our  churches  resound  with 

O 

prayers  against  the  baleful  influences  of  comets, 
though  there  still  linger  in  some  of  our  noble .  old 
rituals  forms  of  supplication  for  dry  weather  and 
rain — useless  but  not  unpleasing  reminiscences  of  the 
past.  The  apothecary  no  longer  says  prayers  over 
the  mortar  in  which  he  is  pounding,  to  impart  a  di 
vine  afflatus  to  his  drugs.  Who  is  there  that  now 
pays  fees  to  a  relic,  or  goes  to  a  saint  shrine  to  be 
cured  ?  These  delusions  have  vanished,  together  with 
the  night  to  which  they  appertained,  yet  they  were 
the  delusions  of  fifteen  hundred  years.  In  their  sup 
port  might  be  produced  a  greater  mass  of  human  tes 
timony  than  probably  could  be  brought  to  bear  on 
any  other  matter  of  belief  in  the  entire  history  of 
man;  and  yet  in  the  nineteenth  century  we  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  whole,  from  the  be 
ginning  to  the  end,  was  a  deception.  Let  him,  there- 


294  EXTINCTION  OF  SUPEESTITION. 

fore,  who  is  disposed  to  balance  the  testimony  of  past 
ages  against  the  dictates  of  his  own  reason  ponder  on 
this  strange  history.  Let  him  who  relies  on  the  au 
thority  of  human  evidence  in  the  guidance  of  his 
opinions,  now  settle  with  himself  what  that  evidence 
is  worth. 

The  value  of  social  methods  is  to  be  determined  by 
an  ascertainment  of  their  practical  working.  We 
have  only  to  compare  the  slow  progress  made  by  Eu 
rope  when  under  its  moral  education,  with  the  rapid 
advancement  of  America  under  its  intellectual  educa 
tion.  How  striking  is  the  contrast  between  the  in 
fatuated  supernaturalism  of  the  one,  and  the  plain 
common  sense  of  the  other!  For  many  successive 
centuries  the  former  was  a  theatre  of  magic.  It  was 
not  until  the  Reformation  that  an  end  was  put  to 
those  disgraceful  miracles  that  were  a  public  scandal. 
As  enlightenment  advanced  they  could  no  longer  be 
made  to  succeed.  Even  Rome,  the  workshop  of  those 
artifices,  ceased  to  be  the  seat  of  that  trade.  They 
could  never  be  imposed  on  America. 

But,  though  this  continent  rejected  those  impos 
tures,  it  has  been  the  scene  of  wonders  of  a  very  dif 
ferent  kind — miracles  not  ending  when  the  enchanter 
ceased  waving  his  wand,  and-  requiring  the  authenti 
cation  of  credible  or  credulous  witnesses,  but  lasting 
for  all  time  and  open  to  all  eyes.  From  the  Atlantic 
shore-line  to  a  vast  distance  in  the  interior  the  forests 


AMERICA  IN  HER  FIRST  CENTURY.  295 

that  encumbered  the  ground  have  been  cut  down ; 
the  gloomy  waste  has  become  fertile  fields ;  roads  for 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  miles  have  been  construct 
ed  ;  rivers  have  been  bridged ;  canals  have  been  dug. 
The  self -multiply  ing  force  of  society  has  at  length 
here  found  unrestrained  scope;  the  population  in 
creases  with  unparalleled  rapidity.  A  network  of 
iron,  daily  increasing  in  extent,  has  been  spread ;  tel 
egraphic  wires  run  in  all  directions.  Great  cities,  with 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  inhabitants,  have  arisen. 
A  large  portion  of  Europe  is  fed  by  the  harvests  that- 
are  gathered ;  a  large  portion  of  the  human  race  turns 
hither  for  its  clothing.  The  people  on  the  borders  of 
the  great  lakes  can  speak  instantaneously  to  those  on 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico ;  those  on  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
can  do  the  same.  Innumerable  churches,  and  colleges, 
and  hospitals  are  scattered  over  the  land  in  all  direc 
tions.  The  ports  are  forests  of  masts.  .  The  flag  of 
the  country  is  seen  on  every  sea  and  from  ever}' 
shore. 

A  self-conscious  democracy  has  wrung  from  its  ri 
vals  and  enemies  the  reluctant  confession  that  "  it  is 
not  fickle  to  its  rulers,  unstable  in  its  policy,  waver 
ing  in  its  determination;"  that  "it  is  not  violent  or 
cruel,  nor  too  imp'atient  of  discipline  and  obedience 
to  be  inapt  for  military  success ;"  that  u  it  will  support 
the  expenses  of  war  and  the  burden  of  taxation." 
They  speak  of  the  opinions  w^hich  Europe  has  held 


296  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

on  these  points  as  "delusions'1  unsafe  any  longer  to  en 
tertain.  It  has  also  taught  them  the  portentous  les 
son  that  "  a  despot  is  not  necessary  for  the  conducting 
of  a  great  war,"  in  which  there  are  engaged  armies 
of  a  million  of  men  and  a  navy  of  a  thousand  ships. 

These  are  a  sample  of  the  miracles  that  spring 
from  Intelligence.  Compare  them  with  the  miracles 
done  in  a  corner — that  spring  from  superstition. 
They  are  also  the  miracles  of  Peace. 

But  there  are  also  miracles  of  War.  In  a  land 
where  every,  man  is  free  to  think  and  free  to  act  as 
he  likes — where  one  might  suppose  that  there  would, 
of  necessity,  "be  a  Babel  hubbub  of  confusion,  and  so 
ciety  be  only  a  rope  of  sand,  the  shot  of  a  gun  at  their 
flag  brought  half  a  million  of  riflemen  into  the  field. 
The  waste  of  battle  and  the  hospitals  was  for  years 
more  than  supplied.  With  admirable  energy,  an  iron 
clad  navy,  that  can  match  the  navies  of  the  world, 
was  sent  to  sea.  Never  was  there  such  an  exhibition 
of  public  resolution  and  of  private  charity.  If  an 
army  of  a  hundred  thousand  men  melted  away  be 
fore  cannon  and  by  fever,  there  was  another  army  of 
a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  put  in  its  place. 
The  wars  of  Europe,  even  those  of  the  French  Em 
pire,  were  outdone  in  brilliancy  and  in  result.  The 
man  of  the  Northwest  hewed  his  way  with  his  sword 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  by  a  river  more  than  a  thou 
sand  miles  long,  paving  its  bottom  with  the  wrecks 


THE  CIVIL  WAR  297 

of  ships.  The  man  of  the  Northeast  executed  march 
es  of  more  than  two  thousand  miles,  resistlessly  cap 
turing  cities  and  subjugating  states:  there  were  tro 
phies  of  thousands  of  guns.  The  mouth  of  the  Mis 
sissippi  was  forced  by  one  of  the  most  brilliant  opera 
tions  in  naval  annals.  The  art  of  war,  both  by  land 
and  sea,  was  absolutely  remodeled.  Slavery,  that, 
like  a  gnarled  Upas-tree,  had  struck  its  roots  into  a 
country  almost  one  fourth  the  size  of  Europe,  was 
wrenched  out  of  the  earth..  A  track  of  grim  desola 
tion,  of  unutterable  ruin,  marked  where  the  avenging 
cannon -wheels  had  passed.  There  were  spent  three 
thousand  millions  of  dollars,  and  yet  this  people  put 
off  its  armor  more  powerful,  richer,  better,  than  ever 
before. 

Is  there  any  miracle  the  Old  World  can  show 
the  equal  of  that  ?  And  what  was  it  wrorked  for  ? 
For  the  sake  of  an  Idea — that  there  shall  exist  on 
this  continent  one  Kepublic,  great  and  indivisible. 

Such,  then,  are  the  fruits  of  the  culture  of  the  In 
tellect,  such  are  the  advantages  the  American  has 
over  the  European  system :  in  truth,  it  belongs  to  a 
higher  stage  of  social  life.  We  have  already  seen 
that,  in  the  general  plan  of  Nature,  the  direction  of 
evolution  is  altogether  toward  the  intellectual ;  a  con 
clusion  equally  impressed  upon  us  whether  our  mode 
of  examination  be  anatomical  or  historical.  Anatom 
ically  we  find  no  provision  in  the  nervous  system  for 


298      MORAL  AND  INTELLECTUAL  PROGRES& 

the  improvement  of  the  moral,  save  indirectly  through 
the  intellectual,  the  whole  aim  of  development  being 
for  the  sake  of  intelligence.  Historically,  in  the  same 
manner,  we  find  that  the  intellectual  has  always  led 
the  way  in  social  advancement,  the  moral  having  been 
subordinate  thereto.  The  former  has  been  the  main* 
spring  of  the  movement,  the  latter  passively  affected. 
It  is  a  mistake  to  make  the  progress  of  society  depend 
on  that  which  is  itself  controlled  by  a  higher  power. 
In  the  earlier  and  inferior  stages  of  individual  life  we 
may  govern  through  the  moral  alone.  In  that  way 
we  may  guide  children,  but  it  is  to  the  understanding 
of  the  adult  that  we  must  appeal.  A  system  work 
ing  only  through  the  moral  must,  sooner  or  later, 
conie  into  antagonism  with  the  intellectual,  and  if  it 
does  not  contain  within  itself  a  means  of  adaptation 
to  the  changing  circumstances,  must  in  the  end  be 
overthrown.  This  was  the  grand  error  of  that  Ro 
man  "system  which  presided  while  European  civiliza 
tion  was  developing.  It  assumed  as  its  basis  a  uni 
form,  a  stationary  psychological  condition  in  man. 
Forgetting  that  the  powers  of  the  mind  grow  with 
the  possessions  of  the  mind,  it  considered  those  who 
lived  in  past  generations  as  being  in  no  respect  men 
tally  inferior  to  those  who  are  living  now,  though  our 
children  at  sixteen  may  have  a  wider  range  of  knowl 
edge  than  our  ancestors  at  sixty.  That  such  an  im 
perfect  system  could  exist  for  so  many  ages  is  a  proof 


MORAL  AND  INTELLECTUAL  PROGRESS.      299 

of  a  contemporary  condition  of  undeveloped  intellect, 
as  we  see  that  the  understanding  of  a  child  does 
not  reyolt  against  the  moral  suasion,  often  intrinsical 
ly  feeble,  with  which  we  attempt  to  influence  him. 
But  it  would  be  as  unphilosophical  to  treat  with  dis 
dain  the  ideas  that  have  served  as  a  guide  in  the  ear 
lier  ages  of  European  life,  as  to  look  with  contempt 
on  the  motives  that  have  guided  us  in  youth.  Their 
feebleness  and  incompetency  are  excused  by  their  suit 
ability  to  the  period  of  life  to  which  they  are  applied. 

But  whoever  considers  these  things  will  see  that 
there  is  a  term  beyond  which  the  application  of  such 
methods  can  not  be  extended.  The  head  of  a  family 
would  act  unwisely  if  he  attempted  to  apply  to  his 
son  at  twenty-one  the  methods  he  had  successfully 
used  at  ten:  such  methods  could  only  be  rendered 
effective  by  a  resort  to  physical  compulsion.  A  great 
change  in  the  intervening  years  has  taken  place,  and 
ideas  once  intrinsically  powerful  can  exert  their  influ 
ence  no  more.  The  moral  may  have  remained  un 
changed,  it  may  be  precisely  as  it  was — no  better,  no 
worse ;  but  that  which  has  changed  is  the  understand-, 
ing.  Reasoning  and  inducements  of  an  intellectual 
kind  are  now  needful. 

If  it  is  thus  with  the  individual,  it  is  likewise  so 
with  humanity.  For  centuries  nations  may  live  un 
der  forms  that  meet  their  requirements — forms  suita 
ble  to  a  feeble  state;  but  it  is  altogether  illusory  to 


300  DEVELOPMENT  OF  GEEEK  LIFE. 

suppose  that  such  an  adaptedness  can  continue  for 
ever.  A  critical  eye  discerns  that  the  mental  features 
of  a  given  generation  have  become  different  from  those 
of  its  ancestors.  New  ideas  and  a  new  manner  of  ac 
tion  are  the  tokens  that  a  modification  has  silently 
tal>:en  place.  Though  after  a  short  interval  the  change 
might  not  amount  to  much,  in  the  course  of  time  there 
must  inevitably  be  exhibited  the  spectacle  of  a  society 
that  had  outgrown  its  forms,  its  rules  of  life. 

In  the  work  from  which  I  have  so  frequently  quoted 
I  have  considered  in  detail  the  theme  here  presented, 
and  have  endeavored  to  show  that  there  is  a  complete 
analogy  between  individual  and  national  life.  Se 
lecting  for  preliminary  examination  the  only  Euro 
pean  nation  offering  a  complete  and  completed  intel 
lectual  life,  and  out  of  the  five  general  topics  that 
might  be  resorted  to — philosophy,  science,  literature, 
religion,  government — using  the  first  as  best  suited 
for  the  purpose,  I  have  endeavored  to  ascertain  the 
characteristics  of  Greek  mental  development,  expect 
ing  to  find  that  the  younger  members  of  the  European 
family,  more  or  less  distinctly,  would  offer  illustrations 
of  the  same  mode  of  advancement ;  and  that,  indeed, 
the  whole  continent,  which  is  the  aggregate  of  these 
separate  elements,  would  in  its  secular  progress  com 
port  itself  in  a  like  way.  From  such  an  examination 
it  appears  that  the  whole  movement  in  question  is  of 
a  nature  answering  to  that  observed  in  an  individual, 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  GREEK  LIFE.  301 

and,  like  it,  conveniently  separable  into  arbitrary  pe 
riods  sufficiently  distinct  from  one  another.  In  suc 
cession  there  may  be  Observed  an  age  of  credulity,  an 
age  of  inquiry,  an  age  of  faith,  an  age  of  reason,  an 
age  of  decrepitude.  The  first,  the  age  of  credulity, 
which  had  filled  the  Mediterranean  Sea  with  mon 
sters  and  marvels,  was  closed  by  geographical  discov 
ery  ;  the  second,  which  includes  the  Ionian,  the  Pytha 
gorean,  the  Eleatic  philosophies,  was  ended  by  the 
criticisms  of  the  Sophists ;  the  third,  embracing  the 
Socratic  and  Platonic,  by  the  doubts  of  the  Skeptics ; 
the  fourth,  ushered  in  by  the  Macedonian  expedition 
in  a  material  sense,  and  in  'a  philosophical  by  Aris 
totle  and  the  Stoics,  and  adorned  by  the  splendid 
achievements  of  the  Alexandrian  school,  degenerated 
into  imbecility,  Neo-platonism,  and  mysticism;  and 
the  hand  of  Rome  put  an  end  to  the  fifth.  In  the 
mental  progress  of  this  people  we  therefore  discern 
the  forthshadowing  of  a  career  like  that  of  individual 
life — a  career  of  which  the  epochs  '.answer  to  those  of 
infancy,  childhood,  youth,  manhood,  old  age. 

Is  there  not  a  wide  step  from  the  simple,  and,  in 
deed,  childlike  inquiries  of  the  lonians  as  to  the  pri 
mary  element,  to  the  majestic  speculations  and  abiding 
faith  of  Platonism,  and  another  to  that  exact  science 
which  culminated  in  the  Museum  of  Alexandria,  and 
still  another  to  the  superstition  of  Plotinus?  The 
strong  man  of  Stoicism  had  degenerated  into  the  su- 


302  DEVELOPMENT  OF  GREEK  LIFE. 

perannuated  dotard,  full  of  admiration  for  the  past, 
of  contemptuous  disgust  for  the  present,  his  thoughts 
wandering  back  to  the  things  that  had  occupied  him 
in  his  youth  and  even  in  his  infancy.  In  this  its 
closing  scene,  Greek  philosophy  is  garrulity  and  mys 
ticism. 

From  the  solution  of  the  four  great  problems  of 
Greek  philosophy  given  in  each  of  the  five  stages  of 
its  life,  it  is  not  difficult -to  determine  the  law  of  the 
variation  of  Greek  opinion,  an'd  to  show  its  analogy 
to  that  of  the  variation  of  the  opinions  in  individual 
life.  A  supreme  interest  gathers  round  such  an  analy 
sis  when  we  compare  what  was  here  accomplished 
with  what  had  been  done  in  the  same  direction  by 
the  ancestry  of  the  Indo-Germanic  nations  in  Asia; 
when  we  see  emerging  in  Europe,  spontaneously  or 
willingly  adopted,  the  majestic  ideas  of  India,  where 
man  had  risen  to  the  grand  conception  of  a  multiplic 
ity  of  worlds  in  infinite  space,  and  a  succession  of 
worlds  in  infinite  time. 

And  now  it  may  be  clearly  shown  that  these 
phases  of  Greek  intellect  are  already  in  part  repeated 
in  the  life  of  Europe,  though  it  is  a  continent  of  many 
meteorological  contrasts,  and  has  a  varied  surface  of 

o 

relief,  and  is  therefore  full  of  modified  men.  For  it, 
too,  there  have  been  successive  ages.  An  age  of  cre 
dulity,  the  old  Pagan  times,  was  ended  by  the  spread 
of  the  power  o£  republican  Rome ;  a  period  then  in- 


EPOCHS  OF  EUROPEAN  LIFE.  303 

tervenes  tip  to  the  foundation  of  Constantinople — it 
is  one  of  inquiry ;  then  follows  an  age  of  faith,  the 
Turkish  invasion  of  Europe  marking  its  close.  The 
harbingers*  of  the  age  of  reason  were  maritime  discov 
ery  and  philosophical  criticism ;  the  former  being  still 
more  effective  in  its  operation  than  in  ancient  times, 
for  it  dislocated  the  centre  of  material  activity  and 
the  centre  of  intellect,  changing  the  front  of  Europe 
from  the  north  shore  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea  to  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  and  forced  nations  that  had  hitherto 
lain  eccentrically  and  in  comparative  obscurity  into 
the  very  van  of  the  new  movement. 

This  regular  advance  of  Europe  toward  its  age  of 
reason  was  to  no  small  extent  affected  by  two  agen 
cies,  to  which  it  would  appear  -fchat  sufficient  import 
ance  has  not  yet  been  attached.  The  first  of  these 
was  altogether  scientific-;  it  was  the  influence  of  the 
Jewish  physicians.  Its  range  is  over  a  period  of  more 
than  seven  centuries.  The  second,  the  Arabian  ac 
tion,  was  partly  intellectual  and  partly  political.  Of 
all  the  incidents  of  European  life,  this  is  the  most 
misunderstood  and  undervalued. 

From  the  age  that  could  accept  without  question 
the  scientific  ideas  of  patristicism,  to  that  which  de 
lighted  in  the  abstruse  metaphysics  of  Abelard,  there 
is  a  very  great  step ;  there  is  also  another  very  great 
one  before  we  reach  the  age  of  Newton.  At  interme 
diate  periods,  a  much  shorter  space  apart,  the  varia- 


304  EPOCHS  OF  EUROPEAN  LIFE. 

tions  in  the  movement  are  so  distinct,  and  their  gen 
eral  tendency  so  obvious,  that  for  an  observing  man 
to  have  overlooked  them  seems  almost  an  impossibil 
ity.  To  assert  that  the  earth  is  stationary  is  a  much 

* 

less  surprising  error  than  to 'assert  the  mental  immo 
bility  of  man ;  yet  it  is  very  well  known  that  even  so 
lately  as  the  seventeenth  century  this  doctrine  was 
the  basis  of  the  European  political  system. 

This  gradual  process  of  intellectual  development, 
shown  so  strikingly  by  the  past  history  of  Europe,  so 
strikingly  in  its  present  life,  is  destined,  necessarily, 
likewise  to  be  shown  by  America; 

"  For,  I  doubt  not,  through  the  ages  an  increasing  purpose 

runs, 

And  the  thoughts  of  men  are  widened  by  the  process  of 
the  suns." 

Here  the  direction  of  the  movement  is  altogether  to 
ward  the  intellectual.  The  advance  is  so  rapid,  the  con 
sequent  material  results  are  so  prodigious,  that  they 
seem  more  like  the  castle-building  of  a  wild  romancer 
than  the  calculated  realities  of  a  political  economist. 

From  that  intellectual  aspec.t  which  in  so  marked 
a  manner  it  is  fast  assuming,  it  is  plain  that  this  con 
tinent  is  destined  for  ages  to  be  the  seat  of  a  conflict 
of  ideas. 

The  law  of  action  and  reaction  obtains  as  com 
pletely  in  the  collisions  of  human  opinion  as  in  the 
mechanical  collisions  of  bodies.  An  idea  can  not 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  AN  IDEA.  305 

make  its  way  through  nations  without  receiving 
from  them  a  special  impress,  and  becoming  modified 
by  the  ideas  it  encounters.  Whatever  may  be  its  in 
nate  force,  whatever  its  massiveness,  it  is  influenced 
by  them  in  proportion  to  their  firmness  or  their 
power. 

Such  is  undoubtedly  the  true  effect,  but  very  often 
it  assumes  a  deceptive  aspect.  When  a  stone  falls  to 
the  earth,  the  earth  rises  through  a  definite  distance 
to  meet  the  stone,  and  the  amount  of  motion  accom 
plished  by  each  is  capable  of  an  exact  scientific  de 
termination  ;  but,  considering  the  relative  masses  of 
the  two  bodies,  we  may,  for  all  practical  purposes, 
without  sensible  error,  neglect  the  movement  of  the 
greater,  and  consider  the  descending  stone  as  alone 
affected. 

So  with  an  Idea :  its  massiveness  and  its  moment 
um  may  long  preserve  it  without  sensible  modifica 
tion.  For  practical  purposes,  it,  too,  may  be  consid 
ered  as  unaffected,  though,  correctly  speaking,  it  is 
slowly  undergoing  change. 

A  new  idea  intruding  itself  among  old  ones  will 
probably  meet  with  resistance  from  them — a  resist 
ance  often  arising  in  part  from  their  philosophical  na 
ture,  and  in  part  from  material  interests  that  may 
have  gathered  round  them.  Its  progress  is,  however, 
facilitated  by  that  innate  tendency  to  a  change  of 
thought  which  affects  all  men ;  for  that  in  every  indi- 

U 


306  RESISTANCE  TO  NEW  IDEAS. 

vidual  there  is  a  tendency  to  such  a  continuous  varia 
tion  of  thought,  no  one  can  doubt  who  examines  Ms 
own  mental  state  at  periods  separated  by  a  few  years, 
and  compares  it  with  that  of  other  persons  examined 
at  like  epochs.  The  change  observed  in  each  is  com 
mon  to  all,  even  though  some  may  perhaps  manifest 
it  in  a  manner  less  conspicuous  than  others.  The 
generality  of  the  fact  indicates  that  it  originates  in 
conditions  to  which  all  are  subject ;  and  that  in  na 
tions  there  is  a  similar  progression,  may  be  readily 
proved  by  a  superficial  examination  of  their  social 
state.  In  the  progress  of  human  affairs  there  arise 
classes  of  men  who  through  their  interests  are  identi 
fied  with  existing  forms  of  opinion,  and  who  manifest 
an  extreme  jealousy  of  any  divergence  from  those 
forms.  At  first,  because  of  the  strength  of  public 
opinion  coinciding  with  them  and  the  feebleness  of 
the  commencing  dissent,  that  jealousy  may  be  grati 
fied  in  open  and  violent  persecution ;  but  as  the  force 
of  coinciding  public  opinion  gradually  declines,  and 
the  divergence  or  dissent  gathers  power,  though  the 
opposition  may  be  none  the  less  bitter,  it  is  obliged 
to  act  in  a  more  masked  or  insidious  way.  Eventu 
ally,  through  the  continued  operation  of  the  same 
causes,  even  such  indirect  action  ceases. 

Many  illustrations  of  these  principles  might  be 
given,  but  one  will  suffice :  it  is  the  manner  in  which 
astronomical  ideas  have  forced  their  way.  Consider- 


RESISTANCE  TO  NEW  IDEAS.  307 

ing  the  probable  consequences  that  might  arise  from 
the  establishment  of  the  Copernican  system,  particu 
larly  as  respects  the  relative  insignificance  of  our 
earth  among  such  countless  myriads  of  worlds,  very 
many  of  which,  by  their  size  and  importance,  seem  to 
be  of  inconceivably  greater  worth — considering  the 
incompatibility  of  such  views  with  the  notion  gen 
erally  held  in  the  Middle  Ages  that  the  universe  was 
made  for  man,  that  its  object  .and  aim  were  altogether 
subordinate  to  human  interests,  it  could  not  be  other 
wise  than  that  opposition  to  so  dangerous  a  diver 
gency  of  thought  should  arise.  Accordingly,  it  showed 
itself  in  the  first  period  in  a  violent  manner,  seeking 
to  extinguish  the  apparent  heresy  by  the  personal  de 
struction  or  persecution  of  those  who  had  fallen  into 
it.  But  this  by  degrees  passed  away,  and  more  mod 
erate  though  more  insidious  methods  were  adopted. 
After  a  few  years  that  opposition  ceased.  It  is  by 
no  means  the  least  interesting  feature  of  these  events 
that  so  great  a  resistance  was  thus  successfully  over 
come,  not  alone  against  ancient  authority,  but  even, 
as  it  were,  against  common  sense ;  for  he  who  adopts 
the  philosophical  doctrine  of  the  globular  figure  of 
the  earth,  and  assigns  to  it  its  true  place  as  a  mem 
ber  of  the  solar  system,  must  question  the  evidence 
of  his  own  eyes. in  matters  that  seem  so  incontestible 
as  the  rising  and  setting  of  the  sun,  and  the  actual  ef 
fect  of  immense  mountain  ranges  and  great  valleys  in 
disturbing  that  globular  form, 


808  RESISTANCE  TO  NEW  IDEAS. 

Whenever  we  see  force  applied  for  the  controlling 
of  ideas,  whether  it  be  in  an  open  or  in  an  indirect 
way,  we  may  be  sure  that  it  is  because  material  in 
terests  are  in  jeopardy,  and  that  the  power  of  the 
opinions  on  which  they  depend  is  becoming  weak, 
and  they  themselves  approaching  to  their  end. 

This  example  may  also  serve  as  an  illustration  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  minds  of  men  tend  to  unity 
of  opinion  in  cases  where  knowledge  of  absolute  truth 
is  attainable,  though  they  may  be  under  very  diverse 
interests.  This,  indeed,  is  the  characteristic  of  exact 
Science,  that  it  spontaneously  compels  such  a  uniform 
ity.  In  a  question  of  arithmetic,  no  one  contends 
against  the  true  solution,  though  his  personal  inter 
ests  may  be  opposed  to  it.  In  questions  of  geometry, 
neither  the  steps  of  the  demonstration  nor  the  conclu 
sions  are  ever  disputed,  and  the  same  holds  good  in 
questions  of  physics.  Once  let  the  true  solution  be 
reached,  and  it  spontaneously  compels  universal  as 
sent,  The  exact  solution  of  any  such  question,  no 
matter  what  its  bearing  may  be,  forthwith  becomes 
an  undisputed  rule  of  action,  from  which  no  person, 
if  even  he  had  the  wish,  could  ever  free  himself.  In 
the  anarchy  of  opinion  now  prevailing  on  many  points 
of  interest  to  the  well-being  of  society,  this  gives  con 
fidence  to  the  hopes  of  the  philosopher,  for  he  sees 
that,  year  by  year,  the  dominion  of  reason  is  spread 
ing,  and  that  men  deliver  themselves  unreservedly  to 


RESISTANCE  TO  NEW  IDEAS.  309 

it;  he  sees  that  the  essential  weakness  of  many  old 
forms  of  opinion  was,  in  a  great  measure,  attributable 
to  this,  that  they  led  to  a  division  of  society  into  two 
unequal  classes — a  small  one,  which  set  itself  above 
reason,  and  an  immensely  large  one,  which  w^as  be 
neath  reason ;  the  former  outraging  truth  by  the  most 
audacious  inventions  for  deceiving  the  latter,  who,  on 

o  / 

their  part,  were  the  more  completely  duped  the  more 
transparent  and  preposterous  the  fraud.  The  one 
stood  aloof  from  Reason  because  it  was  unsuited  to 
their  practices,  the  other  declined  it  because  it  was  in 
consistent  with  their  credulity.  Institutions  founded 
on  such  a  state  of  things  can  have  no  innate  strength, 
and  only  continue  through  the  dexterous  application 
of  shifting  expedients.  But  very  different  is  it  when 
men,  instead  of  depreciating  and  distrusting  Reason, 
put  themselves  unreservedly  under  its  control :  thence 
must  arise  unanimity,  and  unanimity  is  strength. 

To  the  bar  of  common  sense  must  be  brought  all 
ideas,  whatsoever  they  may  be,  to  receive  their  final 
judgment ;  and  this,  not  only  as  respects  those  that 
are  of  a  physical,  but  also  those  of  a  moral  kind. 
There  is  no  other  course  for  it  now  in  the  world. 
Reason  offers  the  only  authority  which  men  of  all  na 
tions  will  acknowledge.  Indeed,  it  is  the  recognition 
of  this  axiom  which  leads  the  European  to  the  ex 
pectation  that  all  other  people  will  eventually  adopt 
his  faith,  in  view  of  the  strong  evidences  he  can  pre- 


310  RESISTANCE  TO  NEW  IDEAS. 

sent  to  them  of.  its  truth,  and  the  unreasonableness 
of  the  ideas  which  they  and  their  ancestors  have  fol 
lowed;  but  what  else  is  this  than  the  exaltation  of 
Reason  above  Authority?  What  other  interpreta 
tion  can  we  give  of  the  numerous  apologies  and  ar 
guments  put  forth  in  their  day  by  the  different  forms 
of  faith  ?  Are  they  not  all  essentially  based  upon 
the  principle  that  Reason  is  the  only,  and  must  be  the 
final  judge? — that  supernatural  testimony  must  wait 
upon  her  decisions,  and  that  faith  is  only  sure  when  it 
is  founded  on  common  sense  ?  How  otherwise  than 
upon  this  principle  can  we  hope  to  bring  the  Bud 
dhist  and  the  Mohammedan  from  their  fallacies — fal 
lacies  which  at  this  moment  are  beguiling  the  great 
er  part  of  the  human  race  ? 

Wh'at  I  have  just  said  respecting  the  modifications 
an  idea  must  undergo  through  its  collision  with  other 
ideas  may  be  generalized.  Entire  systems  of  philoso 
phy  are  liable  to  similar  effects.  They  are  nothing 
but  modes  of  thought;  and  when  they  intrude  them 
selves  among  dissimilar  modes  of  thought,  mutual  dis 
placements  and  alterations  must  ensue.  The  expect 
ations  of  those  who  look  fonvard  to  a  glorious  career 
for  all  nations  of  the  earth  in  common,  each  catching 
a  share  of  the  enthusiasm  and  each  contributing  a 
share  to  the  advance,  are  founded  upon  the  effect 
w^hich  they  suppose  must  ensue  from  the  diffusion  of 
our  own  power  and  enlightenment.  What,  they  ex- 


RESISTANCE  TO  NEW  IDEAS.  311 

claim,  will  be  the  grand  result,  when  our  knowledge 
and  ideas  have  become  the  common  property  of  the 
world  !  What  will  it  be  w7hen,  by  the  printing-press, 
the  telegraph,  and  other  modern  appliances,  all  men 
are  brought  in  close  interconnection,  and,  indeed,  in  in 
stantaneous  intercommunication  !  I  would  ask  them 
to  observe,  for  it  is  true  that  we  stand  on  the  brink 
of  those  events,  what  was  the  result  to  the  ancient 
Greek  philosophies,  when,  after  the  rise  of  Athens  to 
political  supremacy,  they  were  all  mingled  together 
and  compared  together.  Was  it  not  the  total  destruc 
tion  of  them  all  ?  Brought  into  contact,  as  it  were, 
at  a  common  central  point,  none  could  gain  an  abso 
lute  predominance  over  all  the  rest.  I  would  also 
ask  them  to  look  at  the  result  of  the  supremacy  of 
Rome — of  her  policy  of  patronizing  all  the  forms  of 
Paganism,  and  bringing  them  at  one  point  in  contact : 
again,  was  it  not  the  utter  destruction  of  them  all? 
And  so  it  must  be  when  European  systems  of  thought 
come  into  contact  and  conflict  with  Asiatic,  as  they  will 
before  long  do,  by  the  increasing  means  of  intercom 
munication,  which  are  in  reality  equivalent  to  central 
ization  :  each  will  no  longer  be  measured  by  its  own 
partial  standard,  but  all  must  be  submitted  to  that  of 
a  more  general — nay,  even  of  a  universal  kind.  From 
such  a  conflict  I  do  not  believe  that  any  would  come 
forth  without  at  least  exhibiting  marks  of  the  most 
profound  modification ;  and  for  the  weaker  Asiatic 


312  THE  POWER  OF  IDEAS  IN  AMERICA. 

there  seems  to  be  no  other  issue  than  absolute  de 
struction  for  all  those  parts  that  are  not  intrinsically 
true. 


The  American  political  system  is  founded  on  the 
principle  of  public  intellectual  culture.  Recognizing 
the  truth  of  the  maxim  that  ideas  govern  the  world> 
it  rests  its  hopes  on  universal  education.  In  this  re 
spect  it  differs  essentially  from  its  European  contem 
poraries.  They  furnish  enlightenment  to  certain  class 
es  only,  not  to  the  lower  social  strata. 

Such  a  repressive  policy  can,  however,  never  impart 
intrinsic  strength  to  a  community,  as  those  who  de 
vised  and  those  who  adopted  it  supposed.  The  inse 
curity  of  Europe,  whose  civilization  hangs  over  an 
awful  gulf,  and  the  strength  of  America,  whose  devel 
opment  is  proceeding  with  so  much  energy,  are  each 
due  to  the  course  that  has  been  followed  in  this  re 
spect.  In  Europe  men  grope  about  in  political  dark 
ness,  not  knowing  whither  they  are  going,  and  afraid 
to  look  into  the  future.  In  America,  the  sentiment 
of  a  manifest  destiny  to  imperial  greatness  gives  to 
every  one  a  determinate  direction  and  an.  energetic 
life. 

While  the  Slave  States  existed  as  a  political  power, 
.they  were  forced  by  the  necessities  of  their  position 
to  adopt  the  European  maxim,  and  impose  a  forced 
ignorance  on  the  low  elements  of  their  society.  Had 


CENTRALIZATION  IN  AMERICA.  313 

they  done  otherwise,  the  spark  of  enlightenment 
would  quickly  have  kindled  into  a  volcanic,  devour 
ing  flame.  But,  since  their  overthrow  in  the  Civil 
War,  maxims  of  a  very  different,  an  opposite  kind— 
those  that  have  given  such  unparalleled  power  to  the 
East,  the  North,  the  West — will  come  into  play. 
There  will  be  a  harmony  of  action  over  the  whole 
continent. 

Intellectual  development  necessarily  implies  cen 
tralization  ;  but,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  foregoing 
pages,  centralization  is  not  incompatible  with  self- 
government;  in  fact,  it  may  be  the  logical  issue  of 
democratic  principles.  It  is  through  the  working  of 
this  great  truth  that  the  Republic  has  passed  through 
its  inferior  stage  of  life — the  epoch  of  state  sovereign 
ties.  At  that  time  it  was  in  the  condition  of  one  of 
those  animated  forms  that  have  a  dozen  or  more  dif 
ferent  nerve  centres,  each  acting  independently  of  the 
rest,  or  joining  in  concert  only  as  suited  itself,  and 
hardly  acknowledging  the  power  of  any  central  gov 
erning  organ.  But,  as  in  animated  nature  and  in  in 
dividual  man  concentration  accompanies  development, 
so  in  national  life  there  is  an  inevitable  tendency  to 
convergence,  and  to  the  conferring  on  a  predetermined 
part  a  dominant  control. 

The  practical  working  of  these  principles  may  be 
very  advantageously  studied  in  the  pages  of  ecclesias 
tical  history,  which  furnishes  a  lesson  deserving  the 


314  EXAMPLE  FROM  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY. 

attention  of  every  American  —  a  beacon  that  may 
guide  in  the  right  path,  that  may  warn  from  error. 
The  first  Christian  communities  established  in  Syria, 
Asia  Minor,  and  elsewhere  throughout  the  Roman 
Empire,  present  many  highly  interesting  social  anal 
ogies  to  the  first  American  colonies.  Their  churches 
were  the  only  political  embodiments  that  were  per 
missible  or  possible,  and  of  them  the  constitution  was 
essentially  democratic,  power  being  diffused  in  the 
congregation.  The  independent  existence  they  main 
tained  was  by  degrees  modified,  church  affiliating 
with  church,  gathering  thereby  protection  and  con 
ferring  power.  The  individual  helplessness  they  at 
first  exhibited  was  exchanged  for  security.  In  a  very 
short  time,  as  concentration  and  centralization  went 
on,  a  ruling  personage  emerged  from  among  his  cler 
ical  peers,  who,  passing  into  subordination,  acknowl 
edged  his  authority.  The  same  tendency  still  un 
ceasingly  continuing,  the  bishops,  in  their  turn,  per 
mitted  a  superior.  In  the  time  of  Constantine,  so 
completely  had  this  process  of  centralization  gone  on, 
that  power  was  ready  to  converge  into  the  three  great 
sees  of  Rome,  Constantinople;  Alexandria.  Then  came 
the  struggle  between  them  for  supremacy.  The  an 
nals  of  Europe  for  many  years  are  its  history.  Event 
ually,  the  Bishop  of  Rome  became  the  paramount  au 
thority  over  all. 

There  are  but  two  elements  of  government — Faith 


EXAMPLE  FROM  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY.  315 

and  Force  During  the  greater  portion  of  its  civilized 
life,  Europe  has  been  under  the  dominion  of  the  for 
mer.  For  many  centuries  its  kings  were  nothing 
more  than  lieutenants  of-  the  Sovereign  Pontiff.  In 
assigning,  as  we  so  commonly  do,  a  superiority  to  the 
political  over  the  ecclesiastical  element  in  the  history 
of  that  continent,  we  fall  into  a  misapprehension  :  we 
adopt  the  views  of  those  who  consider  only  the  inte 
grant  or  constituent  states,  and  not  the  view  that 
ought  to  be  adopted  from  a  contemplation  of  their 
aggregate — the  continent;  for  there  was  a  time,  a 
long  time,  in  which  ecclesiasticism  discharged  those 
international  relationships  that  are  now  discharged 
by  diplomacy.  In  Rome  resided  the  animating,  the 
uniting  principle  of  all. 

Those  Christian  Congresses  that  pass  under  the  des 
ignation  of  Councils  are  not  without  their  analogues 
in  the  American  political  system.  To  us  there  can 
be  nothing  more  interesting  than  to  study  their  re 
lations  with  the  executive  Papal  authority — how  it 
called  them  into  action  when  its  purposes  required, 
and  how,  when  its  statesmanship  indicated,  it  evaded 
or  declined  to  permit  their  continued  existence.  How 
different  the  result,  had  a  Senate  of  Christendom  been 
possible — a  supreme  authoritative  .  body,  with  the 
Pope  as  its  first  executive  officer !  There  were  often 
great  men  who  saw  that  that  was  the  chief  necessity 
of  their  times ;  there  were  Councils  that  attempted  to 
accomplish  it. 


316  EXAMPLE  FROM  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY. 

In  the  history  of  this  wonderful  power,  that  for  a 
thousand  years  maintained  its  sway,  the  American,  I 
repeat,  may  find  abundant  instruction.  Only  let  him 
divest  his  mind  of  the  impression  that  there  was  any 
thing  supernatural  about  it,  for  that  serves  to  dimin 
ish  its  intrinsic-  merit  as  the  most  extraordinary  and 
most  successful  of  human  political  conceptions  carried 
into  practical  operation.  He  may  realize  from  it  the 
inevitable  course  through  which  all  enduring  human 
associations  must  pass.  He  may  see  how,  in  its  lim 
ited  sphere,  it  depended  on  the  same  principles  on 
which  he  is  depending,  It  signified  nothing  to  the 
Church  that  her  greatest  dignitaries  had  come  from 
the  lowest  social  ranks.  Mental  capacity  was  what 
she  sought;  she  appropriated  it  wherever  she  could 
find  it.  Considering  the  intrinsic  weakness  of  the  in 
tellectual  basis  on  which  she  rested,  considering  how 
incompatible  it  was  with  increasing  .enlightenment, 
our  admiration  may  be  worthily  excited  by  the  won 
drous  duration  of  her  power.  In  that  we  may  per 
ceive  auspices  of  the  most  favorable  kind  for  our 
selves,  who  likewise  are  making  every  thing  depend 
on  the  organization  of  intellect ;  not,  however,  as  she 
did,  for  securing  the  stability  of  what,  at  the  most, 
was  only  an  institution,  but  for  a  nation ;  not  resting 
ourselves,  as  she  did,  on  the  supernatural,  which  is  in 
its  very  nature  delusive  and  unsatisfactory,  but  on 
Reason,  which  is  enduring.  Italian  ecclesiasticism 


CONCLUSION.  317 

was  necessarily  a  specialty ;  American  republicanism 
is  for  a  continent.  The  one  was  mainly  concerned  in 
perpetuating  the  power  of  a  guild  ;  the  other  is  in 
tended  indiscriminately  for  all  classes  of  men.  But  a 
philosophical  study  of  the  political  history  of  the  for 
mer — its  transcendent  successes  as  well  as  its  conspic 
uous  misfortunes — the  course  of  events  through  which 
it  passed — the  profound  knowledge  it  displayed  of 
men,  and,  it  may  be  emphatically  added,  of  women 
too,  who  constitute  a  most  important  element  of  na 
tional  life — the  modes  of  action  it  observed  toward 
antagonizing  influences — its  equanimity  in  the  me 
ridian  splendor  of  its  power — its  tenacity  of  purpose, 
as  inexorable  as  the  grave  in  adversity: — these  are 
things  which  we,  who  are  commencing  a  career  of 
grandeur  in  a,  parallel  direction,  also  requiring  demo 
cratic  principles  to  be  co-ordinated  with  self-govern 
ment,  and  that  with  organization  of  intellect  and  con 
centration  of  power,  may  find  to  be  worthy  of  our 
most  profound  attention. 


INDEX. 


Abderrahman  III.  introduces  cotton, 

118. 

Abelard,  303. 

African  slaves  first  imported,  131. 
Age  of  Earth,  32. 
Ages  of  Greek  life,  300. 
Agricultural  colleges,  168. 
Agriculture,  Egyptian,  67. 
Air,  slow  changes  in,  30. 
Alexander  the  Great,  his  policy,  99. 
Alexandria  ruins,  Greece,  100. 
America,  consequences  of  discovery  of, 
95. 

domestic  life  in,  85. 

effects  of  climate  in,  78,  80. 

locomotion  in,  84. 

neutralization  of  climate  in,  82. 

policy  of,  78. 
American  clergy,  279. 

continent,  position  of,  92. 

immigration,  101, 102. 

Indians,  96. 

Americanization  in  the  West,  174. 
Animal,  its  nature,  15. 
Animals  and  Plants,  their  relation,  21. 

extinction  of,  32. 

hot-blooded,  31. 
Antiochiis  Epiphanes,  208. 
Arabia,  description  of,  179, 180. 
Arabian  emigration,  1 12. 

ideas,  their  influence,  198. 
Arabizing  of  countries,  112. 
Ararat,  its  plants,  38. 
Archetype  of  society,  248. 
Arkwright,  inventions  of,  123,  151. 
Aristotle,  241. 

followed  by  Arabs,  192. 
Art  in  Europe,  141,  142. 

spontaneous,  140. 


Asia,  climate  of,  68. 

political  state  of,  76. 

stagnation  of,  56. 

synthetic  mind  of,  75. 

tends  to  religion,  72. 

topography  of,  68. 
Asiatic  empires,  peculiarities  of,  107. 

women,  their  beauty,  114. 
Asiatics  have  lost  locomotion,  70. 

have  lost  sense  of  improvement,  71. 
Athens,  destruction  of  philosophy  in, 

311. 
Atlantic  plain,  49. 

States,  condition  of,  166. 

States,  their  people,  165. 
Atmosphere,  nature  of,  213. 

receptacle  of  dead,  23. 

unchangeable,  22,  30. 
Augustus,  enactments  of,  110. 
Aurora,  227. 
Australian  emigration,  98. 

population,  137. 
Automatons,  243. 
Averroes,  195. 
Averroism,  influence  in  Europe,  197. 

propagation  of,  196. 

B. 

Babylonian  captivity,  its  effect,  202. 

conquests,  100. 
Bagdad,  schools  of,  192. 
Baines  on  cotton  manufacture,  125. 
Barbarians,  their  changes,  111. 
Bell,  his  inventions,  125. 
Belligerent  rights,  266. 
Berengar  the  heretic,  81. 
Bleaching,  124. 
Blood  admixture,  106, 163. 

admixture  affects  thought,  108. 

adulteration,  106. 


320 


INDEX. 


Blood,  uses  of,  90. 
Blue-eyed  men,  42. 
Botero,  F.,  153. 
Brain,  246,  260. 

doubleness  of,  44. 
Brindley's  inventions,  126. 
Brutus,  spectre  of,  185. 
Buffalo  migrations,  24. 
Byzantine  policy,  235. 

C. 

Caesar,  peasantry  in  the  time  of,  42. 

puts  premium  on  marriage,  109. 
Calico  printing,  125. 
California,  91. 
Canal  system,  121. 
Caravanserai,  70. 
Carthaginian  power,  99 
Castes  in  Egypt,  162. 
Castle  building,  45. 
Catacombs,  Egyptian,  64. 
Caucasus,  inhabitants  of,  42. 
Celibacy,  public,  155. 
Central  Europe,  former  state  of,  104. 
Centralization   and   self-government, 
268. 

in  ecclesiasticism,  314. 
Centre  of  population,  146,  147. 
Cephalic  ganglia,  245. 
Chadizah,  386. 

Character  in  North  and  South,  53. 
Chemise,  117. 
Chiapa,  Bishop  of,  97. 
China,  education  in,  83. 

organization  of,  250,  261. 
Chinese  canal,  74. 

emigration,  91,  J71. 

mode  of  government,  272. 

wall,  74. 

Christian  churches,  their  example,  314. 
Christianity,  its  place  of  origin,  108. 
Church,  Roman,  its  example,  316. 
Circumnavigation  of  earth,  231. 
Civil  war,  80. 

effects  of,  85,  171. 
Classical  instruction,  275. 
Claudius,  his  speech,  148, 150. 
Clergy,  American,  279. 

education  of,  275. 
Clergymen,  mode  of  life  of,  278. 
Climate,  effect  on  Asiatics,  71. 

effect  on  brain,  47. 


Climate,  excessive,  51. 

United  States,  51. 

varieties  of  American,  55. 
Clouds,  225. 

Coal  produced  from  the  air,  30. 
Coffee  from  Arabia,  73. 
Colleges,  multiplication  of,  168. 
Colony,  life  of,  59. 
Colonies,  their  weakness,  100. 
Colonization  of  Europe,  135. 
Colosse,  Egyptian,  64. 
Colossus  a  type  of  Egypt,  67. 
Columbia  River,  51. 
Columbus,  89. 

refers  to  Averroes,  196. 

voyage  of,  230. 
Common  sense  decides  ideas,  309. 
Comparative  history,  62. 

philology,  135. 
Complexion,  changes  in,  40. 
Conscience,  its  effects,  175. 
Conservation  of  force,  193. 
Conservatism,  its  cause,  160. 
Constantino  opposes  science,  212. 
Constitution,  qualities  of,  60. 
Constructive  affinity  of  democracy,  266. 
Copernican  theory  established,  307. 
Cotton  manufacture,  116,  122. 

quantity  of,  131. 
Councils  of  the  Church,  315. 
Crime  on  river  banks,  35. 

tendency  of  men  to,  35. 

tendency  of  women  to,  36 
rompton's  inventions,  123,  151. 
Crusades,  88,  95,  146. 
urrents  in  the  sea,  221. 

D. 

Debt,  American,  177. 
De  Gama,  89. 
Delos  a  slave  market,  99. 
Delusions,  cause  of,  183. 
Demagogues,  60,  79. 
Democracy  in  Europe   and  America, 
265. 

self-conscious,  295. 
Desert  of  the  West,  50. 
Differentiation  and  growth,  252. 

of  communities,  257. 

political,  254. 
Dilution  of  blood,  107. 
Doctrine  of  human  unity,  143. 


INDEX. 


321 


Dog,  wild,  135. 

Domestic  life  in  America,  85. 

Dominicans,  195. 


Earth,  modifications  of,  30. 
Earthquake  of  Lisbon,  187. 


[Finnish  language,  13G. 
(Fish  migrations,  24. 
Flame  of  lamp,  its  destiny,  62. 
Florida,  climate  of,  51. 
Food,  its  uses,  20. 
JForce  comes  from  the  sun,  20. 
conservation  of,  193. 


yCUvUUUCbt»V      ^-'i     J-JlOk/Wllj     J-<^   I    .  WWU9V*  V«»VXVU      V/lj      *W« 

Eastern  habits,  introduction  of,  172.      (France,  relative  strength  of,  129. 


Education,  46,  82. 

Chinese,  83. 

universal,  249,  268,  272. 
Egypt,  art  of,  HO. 

history  of,  63, 162. 

immobility  of,  68. 

permanence  of,  67. 
El  Dorado,  96. 
Electrical  discoveries,  228. 
Emanation  of  souls,  193. 
Emigration,  Australian,  98. 

Chinese,  01. 

effects  of,  48,93,  94,  105. 

English,  97,  101. 

Greek,  98. 

principles  of,  95. 

Puritan,  101. 

Spanish,  96. 
Empires,  chain  of,  61. 
England  in  1 7th  century,  282. 
English  population  doubles,  146. 
Ennui,  national.  90. 
Esdras,  Book  of,  206. 
Europe,  analytical  mind  of.  75. 

ancient  colonization  of,  136. 

autochthons  of,  137. 

Central,  its  former  state,  104. 

effect  of  Crusades  on,  88. 

effect  of  mercantile  activity,  89. 

males  and  females  in,  113. 

women  of,  1 15. 

tends  to  philosophy,  72. 

union  in,  81. 

European  life,  epochs  of,  303. 
Evapoi-ation,  224. 
Eara,  207. 

F. 

Factory  system,  123. 
Fakirs,  Asiatic,  72. 
Families,  large  Arabian,  113. 
Famines  and  drouths  predetermined, 

27. 
Fetish  worship  in  Egypt,  137. 


{Franciscans,  195. 
Franklin,  experiments  of,  228. 
Free  blacks,  132. 
Freedom,  intellectual,  236. 
French  emigration,  103. 

G. 

Galileo,  127. 
Galvanism,  229. 
Gas,  nature  of,  215. 

wells,  74. 
Geological  discovery,  247. 

variations  in  Asia,  69. 
Georgia  abolishes  slave-trade,  131. 
German  movements  in  Europe,  95. 
(Germinal  membrane,  246. 
Glaciers,  227. 
Glass  windows.  4.3. 
Goths,  their  emigration,  104. 
irument  t 
lect,  268. 

Great  Britain,  emigration  from,  105. 
Great  Exhibition,  cotton  at,  120. 
Greek  art,  141. 

emigration,  98. 

legeiids,  origin  of,  64. 

mental  development,  300. 
Gregory  VII.,  his  policy,  81. 
Growth  and  differentiation,  252. 
Gulf  Stream,  25,  145,221. 

II. 

Habitation,  permanent,  its  result,  160. 
Hargreaves,  inventions  of,  123,  151. 
Heat,  effects  of,  55. 

intrinsic  of  earth,  31. 
Hebrews,  philosophical  progress  of,  204. 
Hindoo  cotton  manufacture,  119. 
History,  comparative,  62. 
Holy  wars,  95. 
Homestead,  love  of,  84. 
Homogeneousness,  national,  107. 
Hordes,  Asiatic,  their  emigrations,  69, 
jHumboldt  on  plants,  88. 

X 


322 


INDEX 


Icebergs,  227. 

Ideas,  controlling  of,  308. 

force,  of,  178,  239. 

force  of  Mohammedan,  187. 

impelling  and  resisting,  198. 

indigenous,  137. 

new,  resistance  to,  306. 

progress  of,  305. 
Immigration,  American,  101. 
Immobility  of  institutions,  58. 
Impressment,  102. 
Inca,  Peruvian,  96. 
India,  conquest  of,  151. 

emigration  to.  103. 

inertness  of,  121. 
Indians,  American,  96. 

their  conversion,  159. 
Individual  analogy  with  nation,  13,16, 

emigration,  104. 

mode  of  development,  61. 

relations  in  society,  258. 
Indo-Europeans,  40.  41, 134. 
Industrial  art,  Arabian,  115. 
Insanity,  46. 

Instinct  and  intelligence,  243. 
Institutions,  political  changes  of,  59. 
Intellect,  national  organization  of,  248 
Intellectual  education,  292. 

freedom,  23G. 
intercommunication,  82. 
lonians  on  primary  element,  301. 
Irish  emigration,  103. 
Italian,  modern,  111. 
Italy,  its  aspirations,  176. 

J. 

Jerusalem,  211. 

Jewish    physicians,   their    influence, 

303. 
Jews,  color  of,  40. 

Hellenizing,  208. 

Messianic  idea,  199. 

no  art  among,  209. 
Journalism,  American,  86. 167. 

its  influence,  94. 
Justinian,  wars  of,  110. 

wars  affect  population,  146. 

K. 

Khalifs  of  the  West,  191. 
Killing  of  land,  84. 


L. 

Lakes,  great,  quantity  of  water  in,  49. 
Language,  effects  of,  82. 

effects  on  emigration,  103 
Lapland  witches,  293. 
Lateran  Council  condemns  Averroes, 

197. 

Latin,  its  use,  82. 
Law,  administration  of,  288. 

controlling,  22,  34. 

natural  operation  of,  33,  35. 
Laws  of  transposition  of  men,  105. 
Letters  misdirected,  36. 
Liberty  under  restraint,  264. 
Linguistic  researches,  134. 
Lisbon  earthquake,  187. 
Literature  organizes  the  world,  250. 
Locomotion,  consequences  of  in  Asia, 
77. 

effects  of,  57,  84, 161. 
Lord's  Prayer,  73. 
Lower  class  obtuse,  161. 

M. 

Macaulay,  quotation  from,  290. 
Machiavelli's  social  division,  94-. 
Madonna  born  in  Palestine,  114. 
Magellan  circumnavigates  earth,  89. 
Magiauism,  200. 

effect  on  Jews,  202. 
Magnetic  needle,  230. 
Magyars,  their  emigration,  104-. 
Man  can  not  resist  change,  79. 

emancipated  from  agents,  28. 

influenced  by  climate,  77. 

weight  of  food  of,  15. 
Manchester,  introduction  of  cotton  to, 

122. 

Manichreism,  203. 
Manifest  destiny,  265,  312. 
Mariner's  compass,  variation,  230. 
Material  and  mental  changes,  158. 
Matter  and  Eorce,  20. 

indestructibility  of,  18. 
Mechanical   philosophy,   its    develop 
ment,  128. 
Memnon,  statue  of,  65. 
Men  modified  by  climate,  48,  56. 
Mendicant  orders,  195. 
Mental  delusion,  cause  of,  183. 
Meridional  track  emigration,  144. 
Messianic  idea,  207,  210. 


INDEX. 


323 


Meteorology,  216. 
Mexico,  its  civilization,  97. 
Mexicans  used  cotton,  116. 
Migration,  internal  American,  166. 

to  the  South,  169. 
Mind  well  balanced,  45. 
Miracles  of  intelligence,  296. 

Roman,  294. 
Mirror,  magical,  241. 
Missionary  exertions,  158. 
Mississippi,  forcing  of  mouth  of,  297. 

valley  population,  176. 
Mohammed,  181. 

illusions  of,  182. 

victories  of,  112. 

Mohammedan  philosophy,  192, 193. 
Mohammedanism,  progress  of,  188. 
Monogamy  produces  families,  114. 
Monosyllabic  language,  138. 
Monsoons,  cause  of,  216. 
Montesquieu,  valuation  of  man,  147. 
Moorish  art  and  science,  116. 
Moors  in  Spain,  190. 
Moral  and  intellectual  progress,  298. 
Morality,  175. 

Morals,  stationary  quality  of,  291,  299. 
Motion,  the  value  of,  90. 
Mountains,  plants  upon.  38. 
Malattoes,  their  number,  132,  163. 
Multiplicity  of  worlds,  302. 
Murdoch  invents  locomotives,  126. 
Museum  of  Alexandria,  301. 
Muslin,  117. 

N. 

Nasturtium,  39. 

National  development,  237. 

homogeneousness,  107. 

intellect  organized,  248. 

interior  motion,  91. 
Nations,  cause   of  their  modification, 
110. 

not  isolated  forms,  61. 

transitory  forms,  11. 
Nature,  book  of,  238. 

conquest  of,  211. 

presses  on  society,  60. 

unchange  ability  of,  217. 
Navy,  American,  240. 
Nebuchadnezzar,  conquest  of,  199. 
Negro  slavery,  131. 

a  fetish  worshiper,  138. 


Negro  problem  in  America,  163. 

Nervous  system,  244. 

New  England,  climate  of,  51. 

Newspapers,  effect  of,  86. 

Newton,  127,  303. 

Niagara,  Cataract  of,  49. 

Nile,  its  inundations.  66. 

North  and  South,  character  of,  53. 

Northern  States,  races  of,  165. 

Notes  of  music,  218. 

Numerals  in  various  languages,  41. 

O. 

Obelisks,  Egyptian,  64. 
[Odium  theologicum,  237. 
j Opinions,  action  and  reaction  of,  304. 
i  Opium  eating,  186. 
I  Order  and  progress,  58. 
Organic  series,  242. 
Organization,  intellectual,  in    China, 

272. 

of  the  world,  250. 
Oriental  life  unchangeable,  7G. 
jOver-population,  its  effects,  103. 


P. 


49. 


Pacific  coast  mountains 

railroad,  91. 

States,  emigration  to,  91. 

States,  policy  of,  172. 
Paganism,  its  destruction  in  Rome,  311. 
Pali,  134. 
Paper,  consumption  of,  281. 

invention  of,  118. 
[Parthenon,  141. 
Patristic  philosophy,  224. 
Paul's  inventions,  123. 
Peasantry  impenetrable  to  knowledge, 

160. 

Penny  post,  284. 
Pentateuch,  204. 
Periodicity,  its  nature,  23. 
Perpetual  motion.  128. 
Persons  and  particles,  relation  of,  259. 
Peru,  its  civilization,  97. 
Phantoms,  185. 

Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  202,  208. 
Philosophy,  its  advantages,  81. 

systems  of  change,  310. 
Physical  action,  its  uniformity,  27. 
Plants  and  animals,  relation  of,  21. 

condensations  from  air,  19. 


324 


INDEX. 


Plants,  control  of  climate  over.  28. 

Plato,  263. 

Plotinus,  superstition  of,  30J. 

Plutarch  on  Roman  marriage,  1 10. 

Pole  star,  66. 

Political  differentiation,  254. 

results  of  machinery,  1^9. 
Population  determined  by  law,  156. 

laws  of,  145. 

resistances,  152. 

slave,  132. 

theory  of.  146. 

variations  in  England,  151. 
Polygamy,  effects  of,  113. 

in  Utah,  173. 
Post-office,  85. 

Poverty,  effect  of  on  population,  154. 
Power-loom,  1 24. 
Prairies,  their  vegetation,  50. 
Prakrit,  134. 
Preaching,  276. 
Predestined  effects,  26; 
Pre-historic  researches,  134. 
Press,  281. 
Primitive  trace,  246. 
Primogeniture,  98. 
Printers  in  England,  284. 
Prostitution  organized,  155. 
Public  and  private  relations,  261. 

locomotion,  necessity  of,  86. 

schools  in  China,  83. 
Puritan  emigration,  101. 

R. 

Races,  effect  of  mingling,  161. 

European,  their  origin,  145. 

progress  of,  157. 
Radcliffe,  inventions  of,  124. 
Railways,  English,  87. 

transference  of,  88. 
Rain,  225. 

drops,  course  of,  17. 

making,  139. 
Rainy  days,  52. 
Reason,  authority  of,  309. 
Reel,  winding  on,  37. 
Religion,  unanimity  in,  108. 
Renovation  of  the  body,  14. 
Republic,  origin  of,  263. 
Resistance  of  ideas,  179. 

to  population,  153. 
Revelation,  two  volumes  of,  281. 


Revolutionary  impulses  unsafe,  59. 
|Riots  against  machinery,  122. 
jRoman  Church,  its  mistake,  280. 

empire,  80,  92. 

example  to  America,  92. 

population,  decrease  of,  148. 

system,  its  error.  298. 
Romans,  adulteration  of,  163. 

disappearance  of,  108. 
Rome.  Papal,  opposes  science,  212. 

social  corruption  of,  109. 
Roof,  man  living  under,  55. 

S. 

Saguntum,  99. 

!  Sandy  desert,  American,  79. 
Saracens  conquer  Spain,  189. 
Schools,  273. 
Science,  Arabian,  115. 
opposition  to,  233. 


organizes  the  world,  250. 

protection  of  in  America,  235. 
Sea,  description  of,  219. 

unknown  in  Central  Asia,  41. 
Seasons,  their  influence,  24. 
Sebastopol,  210. 
Seeds,  their  origin,  19, 
Self-multiplying  social  force,  94. 
Shemetic  races,  no  art,  1.40. 
Silk  brought  from  China,  73. 
Skin  of  man,  40. 

and  skull,  changes  of.  106. 
Skull,  its  typical  form,  43. 
Sky,  214. 
Slave  population,  132. 

states,  their  political  necessities,  312 

women,  133. 
Slaves.  American,  their  conduct,  133. 

first  imported,  131. 
Slavery,  Saracen,  influence  on,  115. 

end'of,  297. 
Social  divisions,  three,  94. 

progress,  nature  of,  60. 

strata,  the  lower,  47. 
Society  pressed  on  by  Nature,  60. 
Sounds,  nature  of,  12,  217. 
South,  climate  of  more  equable,  52. 
Southern  blood-admixture,  169. 

climate,  effects  on  man.  54. 

cross,  CG. 

hemisphere,  29. 

States,  Whitney's  gin,  130. 


INDEX. 


325 


Southern  States,  races  of,  164. 
Spanish  emigration,  96, 

Saracens,  390. 
Spectroscope,  232. 
Spinal  cord,  245. 
Sphinxes,  G4. 
Spinning,  119. 
Spring,  phenomena  of,  19. 
Stability,  mode  of  attaining,  250. 

political,  58. 

Stagnant  condition  of  Asia,  70. 
Statesmanship  determines  population, 

156. 

State  sovereignty,  313. 
Steam,  nature  of,  222. 

engine,  121,222,  225. 

political  power  of,  130. 
Steel,  origin  of,  73. 
Stereoscope,  232. 

Stevenson  perfects  locomotive,  127. 
Succession  of  worlds,  302. 
Sun  determines  periodicity,  24. 
Superstition,  extinction  of,  293. 

indigenous,  139. 
Symmetry  of  brain,  46. 
Syrian  idolatry,  199. 

T. 

Tacitus,  quotation  from,  148. 
Talent,  fostering  of  native,  250. 

given  by  God,  249. 
Tartars,  their  emigration,  104. 
Tax  on  travel  impolitic,  86. 
Telegraph,  electric,  231. 
Telescope.  232. 
Tempests,  cause  of,  216. 
Theological  odium,  237. 

seminaries,  278. 

Theology  organizes  the  world,  250. 
Thought-degeneration,  111. 

progress  of,  306. 
Thread  winding  on  a  reel,  37. 
Tornadoes,  216. 
Tournefort  on  plants,  38. 
Transmigration,  22. 
Transplantation  of  man,  105. 
Tribal  emigration,  104. 
Tribes,  effects  of  their  mixture,  106. 
Tropics,  plants  at,  38. 
Turks,  their  invasion,  104. 


Type,  human,  its  changes,  56. 
Tyre,  colonies  of,  99. 

U. 

Unchangeability  of  institutions,  58. 
United  States,  climate  of,  51. 

description  of,  48. 

population,  146,  163. 

total  immigration,  103. 
Unity,  doctrine  of,  143. 

effect  of  in  America,  177. 

of  opinion  in  science,  308. 

of  souls,  doctrine  of,  193. 
Universe,  human  destiny  of,  307. 
Utah,  172. 

V. 

Vaccination,  156. 
Valley,  Mississippi,  49. 
Variation,  line  of  no,  231. 
Vermont,  165. 
Virginia  cherry,  39. 

planter,  1 68. 
Voltaic  battery,  223,  229. 
Von  Bar,  law  of,  256. 

W. 

War,  uses  of,  160,  251. 
Water,  composition  of,  223. 

restoration  to  the  sea,  18. 
Waterfall,  its  peculiarities.  15. 
Watt's  inventions,  124,  151. 
Waves,  nature  of,  12. 
West,  its  topography,  50. 
Western  emigration,  167. 
Whale,  25. 
Whitney's  gin,  130. 
Wind  raising,  139. 
Women,  exclusion  of,  114. 

in  Asia  and  Europe,  113. 

social  position  of,  270. 
Wonders  of  science,  232. 
Woolen  in  England,  121. 
Worship  of  beasts,  162. 
Writing,  alphabetical,  219. 
Wyatt's  inventions,  123. 


Zones  of  American  population,  78. 


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cuts.  8vo,  Cloth,  $6  00  ;  Half  Calf,  $8  25. 

STRICKLAND'S  (Miss)  QUEENS   OF  SCOTLAND.  Lives  of  the 

Queens  of  Scotland  and  English  Princesses  connected  with  the  Regal 

Succession  of  Great  Britain.     By  AGNES  STRICKLAND.  8  vols.,  12mo, 
Cloth,  $12  00.;  Half  Calf,  $26  00. 

BLAIKIE'S  LIFE  OF  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE.  Memoir  of  his  Per 
sonal  Life,  from  his  Unpublished  Journals  and  Correspondence.  By  W. 
G.  BLAIKIE,  D.D.  With  Portrait  and  Map.  8vo,  Cloth,  $2  25. 


Valuable  Works  for  Public  and  Private  Libraries.  7 

BAKER'S  ISiMAlLIA :  a  Narrative  of  the  Expedition  to  Central  Africa 
for  the  Suppression  of  the  Slave-trade,  organized  by  Ismail,  Khedive  of 
Egypt.  By  Sir  SAMUEL  W.  BAKER.  With  Maps,  Portraits,  and  Illustra 
tions.  8vo,  Cloth,  $5  00  ;  Half  Calf,  $7  25. 

LIVINGSTONE'S  SOUTH  AFRICA.  Missionary  Travels  and  Re 
searches  in  South  Africa :  including  a  Sketch  of  Sixteen  Years'  Resi 
dence  in  the  Interior  of  Africa,  and  a  Journey  from  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  to  Loanda,  on  the  West  Coast ;  thence  across  the  Continent,  down 
the  River  Zambesi,  to  the  Eastern  Ocean.  By  DAVID  LIVINGSTONE. 
With  Portrait,  Maps,  and  Illustrations.  8vo,  Cloth,  $4  50. 

LIVINGSTONE'S  ZAMBESI.  Narrative  of  an  Expedition  to  the  Zam 
besi  and  its  Tributaries,  and  of  the  Discovery  of  the  Lakes  Shirwa  and 
Nyassa,  1858  to  1864.  By  DAVID  and  CHARLES  LIVINGSTONE.  Illus 
trated.  8vo,  Cloth,  $5  00. 

LIVINGSTONE'S  LAST  JOURNALS.  The  Last  Journals  of  David 
Livingstone,  in  Central  Africa,  from  1865  to  his  Death.  Continued  by 
a  Narrative  of  his  Last  Moments,  obtained  from  his  Faithful  Servants 
Chuma  and  Susi.  By  HORACE  WALLER.  With  Portrait,  Maps,  and 
Illustrations.  8vo,  Cloth,  $5  00 ;  Sheep,  $6  00.  Cheap  Popular  Edi 
tion,  8vo,  Cloth,  with  Map  and  Illustrations,  $2  50. 

SHAKSPEARE.  The  Dramatic  Works  of  Shakspeare.  With  Notes.  En 
gravings.  6  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $9  00.  2  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $4  00; 
Sheep,  $5  00.  In  one  vol.,  8vo,  Sheep,  $4  00. 

CURTIS'S  LIFE  OF  BUCHANAN.  Life  of  James  Buchanan,  Fifteenth 
President  of  the  United  States.  By  GEORGE  TICKNOR  CURTIS.  With 
Two  Steel  Plate  Portraits.  2  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  Uncut  Edges  and  Gilt 
Tops,  $6  00. 

GENERAL  BEAUREGARD'S  MILITARY  OPERATIONS.  The  Mili 
tary  Operations  of  General  Beauregard  in  the  War  between  the  States, 
1861  to  1865 ;  including  a  brief  Personal  Sketch,  and  a  Narrative  of  his 
Services  in  the  War  with  Mexico,  1846  to  1848.  By  ALFRED  ROMAN, 
formerly  Aide-de-Camp  on  the  Staff  of  General  Beauregard.  With  Por 
traits,  &c.  2  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $7  00;  Sheep,  $9  00;  Half  Morocco, 
$11  00;  Full  Morocco,  $15  00.  (Sold  only  by  Subscription.) 

GIESELER'S  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY.  A  Text-Book  of  Church 
History.  By  Dr.  JOHN  C.  L.  GIESELER.  Translated  from  the  Fourth 
Revised  German  Edition.  Revised  and  Edited  by  Rev.  HENRY  B. 
SMITH,  D.D.  Vols.  I.,  II.,  III.,  and  IV.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $2  25  each; 
Vol.  V.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $3  00.  Complete  Sets,  5  vols.,  Sheep,  $14  50; 
Half  Calf,  $23  25. 


8  Valuable  Works  for  Public  and  Private  Libraries. 

ALISON'S  HISTORY  OF  EUROPE.  From  the  Commencement  of  the 
French  Revolution,  in  1789,  to  the  Accession  of  Louis  Napoleon,  in  1852. 
8  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $16  00. 

NEANDER'S  LIFE  OF  CHRIST.  The  Life  of  Christ ;  in  its  Historical 
Connection  and  its  Historical  Development.  By  AUGUSTUS  NEANDER. 
Translated  from  the  Fourth  German  Edition  by  Professors  M'CLINTOCK 
&  BLUMENTHAL,  of  Dickinson  College.  8vo,  Cloth,  $2  50. 

NORDHOFF'S  COMMUNISTIC  SOCIETIES  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES.  The  Communistic  Societies  of  th«  United  States,  from  Per 
sonal  Visit  and  Observation ;  including  Detailed  Accounts  of  the  Econo 
mists,  Zoarites,  Shakers,  the  Amana,  Oneida,  Bethel,  Aurora,  Icarian,  and 
other  existing  Societies.  By  CHARLES  NORDHOFF.  Illustrations.  8vo, 
Cloth,  $4  00. 

GRIFFIS'S  JAPAN.  The  Mikado's  Empire :  Book  I.  History  of  Japan, 
from  660  B.C.  to  1872  A.D.  Book  II.  Personal  Experiences,  Observa 
tions,  and  Studies  in  Japan,  from  1870  to  1874.  By  W.  E.  GRIFFIS. 

Copiously  Illustrated.     8vo,  Cloth,  $4  00 ;  Half  Calf,  $6  25. 

SMILES'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  HUGUENOTS.  The  Huguenots:  their 
Settlements,  Churches,  and  Industries  in  England  and  Ireland.  By 
SAMUEL  SMILES.  With  an  Appendix  relating  to  the  Huguenots  in 
America.  Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

SMILES'S  HUGUENOTS  AFTER  THE  REVOCATION.  The  Hu 
guenots  in  France  after  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes ;  with  a 
Visit  to  the  Country  of  the  Vaudois.  By  SAMUEL  SMILES.  Crown  8vo, 
Cloth,  $2  00. 

SMILES'S  LIFE  OF  THE  STEPHENSONS.  The  Life  of  George  Ste- 
phenson,  and  of  his  Son,  Robert  Stephenson ;  comprising,  also,  a  History 
of  the  Invention  and  Introduction  of  the  Railway  Locomotive.  By  SAM 
UEL  SMILES.  Illustrated.  8vo,  Cloth,  $3  00. 

SCHLIEMANN'S  IL10S.  Ilios,  the  City  and  Country  of  the  Trojans.  A 
Narrative  of  the  Most  Recent  Discoveries  and  Researches  made  on  the 
Plain  of  Troy.  By  Dr.  HENRY  SCHLIEMANN.  Maps,  Plans,  and  Illustra 
tions.  Imperial  8vo,  Illuminated  Cloth,  $12  00 ;  Half  Morocco,  $15  00. 

SCHLIEMANN'S  TROJA.  Troja.  Results  of  the  Latest  Researches  and 
Discoveries  on  the  Site  of  Homer's  Troy,  and  in  the  Heroic  Tumuli  and 
other  Sites,  made  in  the  Year  1882,  and  a  Narrative  of  a  Journey  in  the 
Troad  in  1881.  By  Dr.  HENRY  SCHLIEMANN.  Preface  by  Professor 
A.  H.  Sayce.  With  Woodcuts,  Maps,  and  Plans.  8vo,  Cloth,  $7  50, 


Valuable  Works  for  Public  and  Private  Libraries.  9 

SCHWEINFURTH'S  HEART  OF  AFRICA.  Three  Years'  Travels  and 
Adventures  in  the  Unexplored  Regions  of  the  Centre  of  Africa — from 
18G8  to  1871.  By  GEORGE  SCHWEINFURTH.  Translated  by  ELLEN 
E.  FREWER.  Illustrated.  2  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $8  00. 

NORTON'S  STUDIES  OF  CHURCH- BUILDING.  Historical  Studies 
of  Church-Building  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Venice,  Siena,  Florence.  By 
CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON.  8vo,  Cloth,  $3  00. 

THE  VOYAGE  OF  THE  "CHALLENGER."  The  Atlantic:  an  Ac 
count  of  the  General  Results  of  the  Voyage  during  1873,  and  the  Early 
Part  of  1876.  By  Sir  WTVILLE  THOMSON,  K.C.B.,  F.R.S.  Illustrated. 
2  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $12  00. 

BOSWELL'S  JOHNSON.  The  Life  of  Samuel  Johnson,  LL.D.,  includ 
ing  a  Journal  of  a  Tour  to  the  Hebrides.  By  JAMES  BOSWELL.  Edited 
by  J.  W.  CROKER,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.  With  a  Portrait  of  Boswell.  2  vols., 
8vo,  Cloth,  $4  00 ;  Sheep,  $5  00. 

JOHNSON'S  COMPLETE  WORKS.  The  Works  of  Samuel  Johnson, 
LL.D.  With  an  Essay  on  his  Life  and  Genius,  by  A.  MURPHY.  2 
vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $4  00;  Sheep,  $5  00. 

ADDISON'S  COMPLETE  WORKS.  The  Works  of  Joseph  Addison, 
embracing  the  whole  of  the  Spectator.  3  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $6  00. 

OUTLINES  OF  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  From  the  Earliest  Times  to  the 
Fall  of  the  Western  Roman  Empire,  A.D.  476.  Embracing  the  Egyp 
tians,  Chaldaeans,  Assyrians,  Babylonians,  Hebrews,  Phrenicians,  Medes, 
Persians,  Greeks,  and  Romans.  By  P.  V.  N.  MYERS,  A.M.,  President  of 
Farmers'  College,  Ohio.  12mo,  Cloth,  $1  75. 

BROUGHAM'S  AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  Life  and  Times  of  Henry,  Lord 
Brougham.  Written  by  Himself.  3  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  |G  00. 

BLUNT'S  BEDOUIN  TRIBES  OF  -THE  EUPHRATES.  Bedouin 
Tribes  of  the  Euphrates.  By  LADY  ANNE  BLUNT.  Edited,  with  a 
Preface  and  some  Account  of  the  Arabs  and  their  Horses,  by  W.  S.  B. 
Map  and  Sketches  by  the  Author.  8vo,  Cloth,  $2  50. 

THOMPSON'S  PAPACY  AND  THE  CIVIL  POWER.  The  Papacy 
and  the  Civil  Power.  By  the  Hon.  R.  W.  THOMPSON.  Crown  8vo, 
Cloth,  $3  00. 

ENGLISH  CORRESPONDENCE.  Four  Centuries  of  English  Letters. 
Selections  from  the  Correspondence  of  One  Hundred  and  Fifty  Writers, 
from  the  Period  of  the  Paston  Letters  to  the  Present  Day.  Edited  by 
W.  BAPTISTE  SCOONES.  12mo,  Cloth,  $2  00. 


10  Valuable  Works  for  Public  and  Private  Libraries. 

THE  POETS  AND  POETRY  OF  SCOTLAND :  Prom  the  Earliest  to 
the  Present  Time.  Comprising  Characteristic  Selections  from  the  Works 
of  the  more  Noteworthy  Scottish  Poets,  with  Biographical  and  Critical 
Notices.  By  JAMES  GRANT  WILSON.  With  Portraits  on  Steel.  2  vols., 
8vo,  Cloth,  $10  00;  Gilt  Edges,  $11  00. 

THE  STUDENT'S  SERIES.     Maps  and  Illustrations.     12mo,  Cloth  : 

FRANCE.— GIBBON. — GREECE. — ROME  (by  LIDDELL). — OLD  TESTA 
MENT  HISTORY. — NEW  TESTAMENT  HISTORY.— STRICKLAND'S  QUEENS 
OF  ENGLAND. — ANCIENT  HISTORY  OF  THE  EAST. — HALLAM'S  MIDDLE 
AGES. — HALLAM'S  CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. — LY ELL'S 
ELEMENTS  OF  GEOLOGY. — MERIVALE'S  GENERAL  HISTORY  OF  ROME. — 
Cox's  GENERAL  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  —  CLASSICAL  DICTIONARY.  — 
SKEAT'S  ETYMOLOGICAL  DICTIONARY.  $1  25  per  volume. 

LEWIS'S  HISTORY  OF  GERMANY. — ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY. — HUME'S 
ENGLAND.  $1  50  per  volume. 

BOURNE'S  LOCKE.     The  Life  of  John  Locke.     By  H.  R.  Fox  BOURNE. 

2  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $5  00. 

COLERIDGE'S  WORKS.  The  Complete  Works  of  Samuel  Taylor  Cole 
ridge.  With  an  Introductory  Essay  upon  his  Philosophical  and  Theolog 
ical  Opinions.  Edited  by  Professor  W.  G.  T.  SHEDD.  With  Steel  Por 
trait,  and  an  Index.  7  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $2  00  per  volume;  $12  00 
per  set. 

CAMERON'S  ACROSS  AFRICA.     Across  Africa.     By  VERNEY  LOVETT 

CAMERON.     Map  and  Illustrations.     8vo,  Cloth,  $5  00. 

EARTH'S  NORTH  AND  CENTRAL  AFRICA.  Travels  and  Discov 
eries  in  North  and  Central  Africa:  being  a  Journal  of  an  Expedition  un 
dertaken  under  the  Auspices  of  H.B.M.'s  Government,  in  the  Years 
1849-1855.  By  HENRY  EARTH,  Ph.D.,  D.C.L.  Illustrated.  3  vols., 
8vo,  Cloth,  $12  00. 

THOMSON'S  SOUTHERN  PALESTINE  AND  JERUSALEM.  South 
ern  Palestine  and  Jerusalem.  Biblical  Illustrations  drawn  from  the  Man 
ners  and  Customs,  the  Scenes  and  Scenery,  of  the  Holy  Land.  By  W.  M. 
THOMSON,  D.D.  140  Illustrations  and  Maps.  Square  8vo,  Cloth,  $6  00  ; 
Sheep,  $7  00  ;"  Half  Morocco,  $8  50 ;  Full  Morocco,  Gilt  Edges,  $10  00. 

THOMSON'S  CENTRAL  PALESTINE  AND  PHOENICIA.  Central 
Palestine  and  Phoenicia.  Biblical  Illustrations  drawn  from  the  Manners 
.and  Customs,  the  Scenes  and  Scenery,  of  the  Holy  Land.  By  W.  M. 
THOMSON,  D.D.  130  Illustrations  and  Maps.  8vo,  Cloth,  $6  00; 
Sheep,  $7  00;  Half  Morocco,  $8  50;  Full  Morocco,  $10  00. 


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